Rendezvous on Itchy Armpit
by HaddocksOrTails
Summary: When Astrid and Hiccup take the next big step in their relationship, Astrid becomes a little unsure about herself, so Hiccup takes her on a trip to show the lass of his life that there's nothing to be afraid of. [Lemonfields / Hard moments / Astrid's POV ] Extra chapter: Hiccstrid, Ruffret & babies.
1. Issues

**These characters don't belong to me, I just really like them. A lot.**

**It's rated M for a reason. A lot of reasons.**

§§§

It's not like we haven't done _it_ before.

We did it.

Once.

In his room.

On his bed.

I'd like to think it was pretty much okay for a first time. But, huh, grown up life can be very difficult. We have several issues...

Where shall I start?

In the past couple of years everyone treated us as boyfriend and girlfriend, which is totally alright, after all, he is my Boy with a capital _B_ and my Friend with a capital _F_ \- and at some point in our lives we undeniably fell in love with each other.

It wasn't one of those magical first sight thingies though, because I have known him all my life. It was a process, as a matter of fact, a rather lengthy one.

It took me quite some time to notice that he wasn't an awkward kid and there was lots of potential in him. It took me quite some time to recognize how funny, witty and talented he was. Yes, he was annoyingly stubborn too, but I could handle that with a few well-placed punches.

But back then, in our early teenage years, my feelings weren't really serious – after all, I had absolutely no experience in the romance department - I just followed my instincts and my guts told me that I should show him (and the rest of the island - just to be safe and sound) that I wasn't indifferent towards him.

He seemed to like my little terms and actions of endearment, but... for a long time he was only a _receiver_ and not an _initiator_.

But eventually, we grew up. We matured and our feelings for each other matured with us, but as of now, we're still in a fragile, protective stage. We don't rub our emotions to anybody's face and we don't do PDA. We don't make out in front of the others. Oh heck, we barely even touch each other, still anytime one of us is in the 2-meter radius of the other, one of the twins insensitively shout "Get a room!"

Oh, if only we could get a room...

Yeah, that's one major issue.

We both live with our parents and they all know that we are old enough to crave more than just a little hand holding under the star filled skies.

My mother is too shy to be strict and both of our fathers are pretty easy going, but they want to protect us and want to prevent what's inevitable.

What _was_ inevitable...

Yeah, we don't have our V cards anymore, we traded them.

It happened roughly 3 weeks ago.

His father had to go on an urgent diplomatic mission to one of the Southern islands and he forgot to tell Gobber to burden my dear lad with boatloads of work, so he wouldn't have time for his _m'lady_. Yes, that would be me.

Sooo... after a lengthy training session at the Academy, he came up to me, quite excited, and offered to show me the map he was working on during the past couple of weeks.

I was glad that finally I could spend some alone time with him, because during the past 3 weeks we never had the chance to be together, just the two of us, not even for a second.

But I never would have guessed that it was going to be the time we take that one big step...

When we left the Academy, I was unsuspecting and I followed him to his house as innocently as a newborn lamb. Okay, I wasn't exactly _innocent_, because I knew we would end up in each other's arms in no minute, but a heated make-out session was all I had in my mind.

When we entered his upstairs room, he quickly dropped everything he was holding on the floor (his precious map and three freshly sharpened pencils, to be specific) and much to my surprise he grabbed me by my waist and we shared the most sensual kiss ever.

We only parted when his poor dragon, who happened to be in the room with us, started to make alarmingly uncomfortable growls.

Hiccup let go of me and went to the unhappy reptile. He whispered something into his ear and the sharp-witted child of the night immediately left the room and disappeared somewhere downstairs.

The disappointment I saw on Toothless's face made me swallow a little giggle - he was so humanlike sometimes. He looked at us with giant, sad eyes - it was his _the-other-kid- are-playing-and-I'm-left-out-again_ expression, but I knew he had already accepted that there were times when I and only I was the center of Hiccup's attention.

It was a mutual respect between us, because I had also accepted that they needed a lot of private bonding time.

Lucky for us, we shared the love of a man whose heart was big enough for the both of us.

As I recall, the moment when Toothless left the room was exactly the same moment when I started to feel that this time it was going to be different. There was this strange vibe between us, it was a lot stronger than the usual sparks, it was something deeper, something magnetic and it dragged us to each other with full force...

After our poor black friend left the room, Hiccup turned back to me and I saw that devilish expression on his face that he only wore when there were just the two of us and we were up close and personal.

It was his _I-want-you-so-much-that-I-could-kill-another-giant-beasts-for-you_ look.

I like that look. It's raw and honest and it shows me that he craves me so badly that it almost feels painful and it makes me want to be the object of all his desires.

So… roughly fifteen minutes later we ended up on his bed - half naked and all fired up, ready to be dissolved in each other.

I was under him during our seemingly endless make-out session and... well, I clearly felt that our little 'work out' had a huge effect on him, because the afformentioned 'huge effect' was pressed tightly against my abdomen.

It didn't come as a surprise, by that time, the intimate regions of his beloved body weren't exactly _terra incognita_ to me. I'm not saying that I knew all about them, because there was still a lot to learn and a lot to explore, but I had already known that extensive kissing caused major growth and hardening that required some careful fondling. And I have to admit, he really enjoyed my hard work - judging by his constant little moans and the pants that were in synch with my delicate strokes.

But the time had come when I wanted more than a little friction and I'm sure he craved it as much as I did - he's just not the type of guy who whispers into your ear in a husky voice that he wants to have you. Okay, who am I kidding? As it turned out he is _exactly_ that type, he just needed a little time and a couple of really successful _encounters_ to be able to comfortably share his deepest desires with me, any time, any place.

As for the first time, I had to push us over the edge.

So there we were, on his bed, kissing and touching each other generously as we always did when we were behind closed doors (or thick bushes) and I still don't know why exactly I thought it to be a good idea, but I snaked my hands between us. I clumsily untied the cord on my leggings while he was occupied with putting my lips on fire, and somehow I managed to raise my hip a little to be able to pull it down, along with my underclothes.

He immediately stopped with the kissing and gave me the most flabbergasted look I had ever seen on his face. I shrugged my shoulder and smiled at him tenderly. "I think, it's time to…" I whispered while my hands ran up his sides. His eyes seemed a lot darker than usual, they were almost all black and when he ducked down and started to put big, sloppy kisses on the sensitive skin behind my ear, I knew I had won him for my cause.

My hands were between us again, but this time I helped him get rid of all the unwanted clothes and then there were we, nothing but skin on skin…

He stopped kissing me and looked at me with the same, astonished face as before. I grabbed his neck and pulled him back to my lips.

"Are you sure you...?" I heard him mumble into my mouth but without answering the dumb question - because, dah, I only started things that I intended to finish and he should have known that by now- I raised my hips and our burning cores touched and we both let out a deep, forbidden moan.

He looked at me and wanted to say something again, but I quickly put my forefinger on his lips and meanwhile spread my legs further apart to give him easier access.

He still seemed a bit confused so I smiled at him and laced my fingers gently around his hardness and helped it to find its way inside me, where it belonged.

By this time he had several little sweat pearls on his forehead and it seemed it was difficult for him to keep his balance while propping himself on his elbows on each side of my head.

But he managed to stay relatively still and when I nodded, with a timid but highly effective little push he was suddenly all inside me...

The pain... well, the pain was there but it was bearable, but I might have made a terrified face at some point because he looked down at me with an equally frightened expression. I quickly showed him a little smile again and pulled him down for another endless kiss, giving him all the validation he needed.

After a second or two, when my hungry kisses and some delicate moans convinced him that his current actions were much to my likings, he started to move in and out of me very slowly, very carefully.

The pain I had felt initially was entirely gone now and even though I still found my position a bit uncomfortable, there were many things I could enjoy about it. We were so close. To each other. To everything. To eternity. When his movements sped up, I started to suspect that he was close to something else too...

With a huge grunt he reached a place from where I knew was no turning back and I nodded again, giving him the permission to let loose . Surprisingly, even though he was almost completely absorbed in the turmoil of events, he had enough self-control to pull out. His thick, warm liquid poured on my stomach and when he completely emptied himself, he dropped down right next to me, panting as if he was chased by a troll.

"So -_pant_\- sorry -_pant_\- I -_pant_\- didn't -_pant_\- know -_pant_\- what -_pant_\- to -_pant_\- do."

I couldn't answer him properly, I was so overwhelmed by all that had just happened, but I reached for his hand and grabbed his fingers tightly. When I managed to collect myself, I looked down on my stomach, it was quite messy down there. His fluids were mixed with a little bit of my blood, which I knew was perfectly normal, so I didn't worry nor felt uncomfortable about it.

Actually, I felt proud. The whole thing felt like a major accomplishment.

"Could you...?" I started, turning my head towards him with a hugest smirk on my face – I didn't want to give a chance to his insecurities to kick in, because all was right with the word. All was _very _right with the word.

"Oh, sure. Sorry." He jumped up, searched for his tunic on the floor and quickly wiped most things off of me. "Let me just grab you some erm… water to clean up."

He put his leggings back on and tossed the dirty tunic to the far away corner of the room and headed downstairs to fetch the water. I swear, I heard him whistle which was very unlikely of him and would have totally annoyed me if I hadn't still been under his beautiful spell…

Luckily, he came to his senses and the irritating happy noises of the boy who had just had his largest peer burden lifted off his shoulders, stopped. I sat halfway up, leaning on my elbows when I heard him come up the stairs.

He had a bucket in his hand, which he carefully placed next to the bed, before sitting back on it, tilting his head to give me a cute little peck on the lips. He straightened himself but then ducked his head again – his undeniable happiness earned me a few more kisses.

"I'll go back down and make us some dinner. I think we deserve it." He whispered to my ear and gave one final kiss behind my earlobe that made me shiver.

When he closed the door behind him, I sat up and started to clean myself with the cold water. My thoughts drifted back to the things we did not ten minutes ago, and I was still surprised by the fact that he was so disciplined even in the most distracted state, at the very end of our mischievous adult game. But that was him. He was thoughtful enough to pay attention to things that were probably uncomfortable to him at that moment, but would have caused a bit of a problem to both of us.

Yeah, I'm perfectly sure that neither of us wants any miniature Hiccups or Astrids. I'm perfectly sure that he would immediately marry me if we were in that sort of 'trouble', I just don't want it to happen in the near future. I know for a fact that if he got married, Stoick would give chiefdom to him and he is just not ready to accept that. And I'm not ready to be the chief's wife. Nope. We need freedom. We need adventure. We need air.

But I knew I had to take precautions next time... Thanks Freya, I had learnt all the useful information from the older girls, I just needed to steal some of my mother's herbs to make the tea that had helped Viking women for centuries...

While I was worrying about the post-coital future, my beloved man (yes, he was definitely a man now!) came back and patiently waited for my permission to enter the room after knocking on the door quietly. I was almost fully dressed, my tunic was the only thing that was next to me on the bed where I was sitting. He came in and sat next to me and started kissing me mumbling about the dinner being almost ready, but it seemed that as of now, both of us were more interested in feeding each other kisses than actual food.

We were quickly in horizontal positions again.

I was lying on my back, he was now on his side and nestled closer to me...

I knew what he was up to...

He started to kiss my neck and placed his left hand on my bare stomach, his fingers ghosting around my sensitive navel.

And when his fingers started to crawl further down... I stopped him with both of my hands.

Yeah, it was our biggest _issue_. I don't want him to touch me down _there_.

I don't know what my problem is... Okay, I do know. It feels awkward. I don't understand why on Earth he would want to put his hand there… where everything is damp and strange. He does want to touch me, I know that, because he keeps trying in his humble ways, but I always stop him, because the whole idea repels me…

On the other hand, as I have pointed it out before, I don't mind touching his most sensitive part. It reminds me of the handle of my hatchet, erm... they both fit into my palm nicely. And I love the effect my fingers and my lips have on him. I find it totally hilarious how the slightest touches of my tips on his tip make him shiver and moan. Okay, I don't find it amusing, but it's...a very exciting thing. Fulfilling. Intoxicating. It makes me tremble and... well, all sort of things happen down in my... oh, I guess I don't even want to think about it, because eh... I feel disgusted.

I know, I shouldn't feel like this and I've heard the other women talk about all kinds of magical things that could happen if a man knows his business. I'm just dubious. And I don't know... What if I disappoint him? What if he has all these expectations and I don't live up to them? What if it turns out to be a total turn off?

Maybe I should tell him to simply stop trying and that way I could avoid my awkward feelings and the undeniable disappointment in his eyes. I think, I'm not ready for this kind of intimacy and I'm most probably never will be…

§§§

After our big step I had a good two days to think about all that had happened, but I never regretted it, not for a second. I felt that we formed a connection on the highest level, a bond that could never break. Unfortunately, life was busy again and we didn't have any private time apart from one occasion when he managed to steal a few kisses from me at the back of the forge when I dropped by to have my dad's broken shield fixed.

We literally only had 2 minutes for ourselves before Gobber came back and unintentionally but insensitively broke us apart and the desperation and the need I saw in Hiccup's eyes afterwards filled my heart with sorrow. We needed each other.

I went home and had a sad, dreamless night during which I was constantly thinking about him. I had no doubt that he was doing the same. The next morning, when I woke up, the sadness deepened even though it seemed almost impossible to feel more miserable.

At that point it I was just a pebble that was thrown into a bottomless lake and with every second I fell deeper into the darkness.

I collected myself and dressed up while trying to find some comfort in the thought that at least I would be able to see him during morning training. And then I heard that someone was knocking on our door - it was an unusually early hour to have a visitor at the Hofferson house.

I was at the top of the stairs, leading down to our living room from my upstairs bedroom, when I recognized his voice. I couldn't quite understand what he was saying to my parents but I knew the _tone_, the one he developed only a couple of months ago.

It was his a_spiring chief voice_, calm, serious and trustworthy. He used it when he wanted to persuade someone, usually an older man from the tribe. And it worked like a charm.

I put my casual face on and started to walk down the stairs as if I didn't care about the men's business, but truth be told, I almost had to press my palms against my chest in order to keep my heart in its place…


	2. Tents

"… I think it's quite obvious that Astrid is the best candidate for this mission."

That was the first sentence I heard while I was still on the top of the stairs, hiding in the shadows for a couple more seconds, before silently walking down and revealing my presence to the men - my dad and my lover - who were standing in the hallway.

My father was right in front of the staircase showing his back to me, so I couldn't see his face. I saw Hiccup's, however, who looked so serious that I have to admit, he frightened me for a second. Plus, I had no knowledge of any urgent mission that could have explain such an early visit to our house and I really feared that something unpleasant had happened over night...

When I cleared my throat in the background, Hiccup noticed me and raised his head, locking his gaze with mine. Apart from that, his only reaction to my appearance was just a little nod - a polite and very subtle greeting. My father turned his head towards me and said a quiet "Hi", but then his eyes were back on Hiccup again, who, it seemed, was about to give us some further explanation about the unexpected visitation.

"Astrid is one of the best fighters and she is smarter than any other dragon rider. Aaand this is a pretty serious thing." Hiccup's voice was unbelievably calm and I was quite impressed; my big, bulky father was not an intimidating factor in my lad's life anymore.

"I have no doubts about it," answered my father, sounding equally serious.

Before I had the chance to make enquires about this enigmatic conversation, my father turned back to me. "Daughter, Hiccup wants you to help him map some uncharted territories up North."

"And?" I still had no clue about what they expected me to do. We spent most of our days mapping the area and I didn't understand why it was all of a sudden so important to ask for my dad's permission.

"This new place is a bit further up, it's a 5-hour ride from here." Hiccup looked at me again and even though he still looked indifferent, I noticed a little twitch at the corner of his mouth. "We should leave early this afternoon and spend the night there to be able to add more details to the existing map the next day."

Now this sounded interesting... I didn't dare to ask whether it was a trip for two or... I did not want to put more emphasis on the obviously questionable idea of a young man and a woman spending a night together in the wilderness.

As it turned out, my father shared my worries. "And what about the sleeping arrangements?" He sounded a bit concerned, but it seemed that Hiccup had an answer to all his questions.

"I've just sewn a couple of new leather tents in the forge. All of them are waterproof and suitable for one person only."

At this point, my mum came out from the kitchen where she was quietly eavesdropping the conversation while preparing our breakfast. She looked at my father silently.

I felt a bit of a tension between them but their mute communication wasn't unusual at all; over the long years of their marriage, my parents somehow started to be able to 'talk' without saying a word to each other. Long and uncomfortable minutes have passed before the silence broke.

"Okay," said my dad finally after letting out a deep sigh, "I understand the importance of the mission and I also know that I have to trust my future chief. You can leave, whenever you are ready."

"Thank you, Mr. Hofferson. I appreciate it." Hiccup's answer was short and formal and then finally, for the first time during this strange but exiting conversation, he addressed me. "Astrid, please, prepare yourself and Stormfly for the journey. I'll get the tents, but bring some pelts; it might get really cold during the night. I'll come back for you at 4."

He quickly said his polite goodbyes to my parents and left me there, almost petrified. A night with him and him only? That was wilder than my wildest dream, but my mother's words woke me up from my midday slumber.

"Astrid, before leaving, go and get me some rosemary and thyme. I've run out of them, Odin knows why, I thought I had plenty..."

I obediently nodded and rushed out of the door as fast as I could. I didn't want my mother to notice the sudden ruddiness of my face. I turned red because I knew all about her missing herbs; they were carefully mixed with other plants and lay hidden in a pouch beneath my pillow.

§§§

The journey itself wasn't an exciting one. Hiccup did come for me at 4 and we flew for a good 5 hours in our flight gears, fighting the heavy winds as we traveled up North.

He and Toothless were flying in the front, but Hiccup turned his head and took a glance at me every 10 minutes. I liked his attentiveness and even though he was wearing his flight mask, I could see from the way his eyes flashed at me that anytime he saw my face, he started to smile.

Finally, we arrived to a tiny cliffy island where Hiccup decided to land. It was a small piece of land but it was perfectly enough for two tents and a fire that would keep us warm during the night.

I got off Stormfly and only when I hit the ground did I realize how numb my bum felt after 5 hours of high speed dragon riding. I was limping for a few steps and I tried to get some relief by squeezing my sore hindquarters wishing if only I had someone else's hand under my skirt…

Hiccup, who was on the ground too and has just taken off his mask, noticed my struggles and let out a heartfelt laugh. "Sorry about the long journey. Erm... I might take a look at your saddle back on Berk, it probably needs some extra cushioning."

Ah, I swear to Thor, I almost felt disappointed, because he didn't offer to ease my pain with a massage, but he was too busy getting the tents out from under the Night Fury's saddle.

At that point I started to feel a bit worried about him taking this 'mission' far too seriously. At first, I thought the whole mapping thing was just a very good excuse for spending some time with me, but now, seeing him packing and preparing for the night, I started to doubt it.

It's not like I expected him to kiss me right after we got off from our dragons but... Oh, who am I kidding? I did expect him to do that, I wanted him to do that and I started to feel that I fell back to the third place on his priorities list, right after exploring new territories and building tents.

"So what is this place?" I enquired, trying to get over his disappointing ignorance.

"It's the Itchy Armpit," he said with gap-toothed grin, still busy with the packing. "Toothless named it," he added a second later with a wink and his goofiness made me smile. Probably it would be a good idea to forget about overanalyzing the lack of his immediate reactions and just enjoy each other's company…

But then a couple more minutes passed without either of us saying anything and it got to the point when it started to feel awkward. Our dragons' relationship, however, seemed to be much more stable. After they were being freed from their burdens, they started to play on a patch of grass not far away from us.

The sight of the happy reptiles was comforting, I really liked the fact that Toothless and Stormfly started to get on so well – they were different species and letting them play together wasn't without risk. Of course, sometimes they were bickering or growling at each other, but I liked to entertain the thought that they genuinely enjoyed each others' company since I was planning on tying the lives of all four of us together into one unbreakable knot.

I spent a good five minutes with standing in awe, watching our freakishly adorable dragons when suddenly Hiccup cleared his throat to get my attention. I turned back to him and he was still being occupied with trying to build our tents.

"Astrid, I need your opinion on something. So... I sew these tents and well… we have two options: I can either build two small tents or... one bigger."

I looked at him with a dropped jaw and disbelief in my eyes. Luckily, he didn't see it, because he was curiously fixing some metal sticks and ropes in front of him.

"Would it be easier to make the bigger one?" I asked trying not to sound as excited as I really was.

"Definitely." He sounded confident, but he was still looking at the various tent parts in front of him. I almost burst out laughing when few seconds later I realized that his face was basically crimson.

So it wasn't just me who had ulterior motives...

The thought of him conspiring about spending the night with me fixed my shattered confidence. I grabbed the pelts that were neatly piled on the ground and casually walked near him, dropping down and arranging the furs and then sitting down next to him.

I gently cupped his face and turned it towards me. I traced his jawline with a thumb before planting a slow kiss on his lips.

"Let me help you with that," I whispered to him with a tender smile After a moment of embarrassment that my affection caused, he shook his head and gave a peck behind my earlobe. "Thank you," he whispered back and I wasn't sure whether it was a reaction to the help I offered or because I was more than willing to spend the night with him.

§§§

The tent was ready in less than 20 minutes. He really did a good job, it was stable and big enough for at least four persons. He even made little openings on the sides to let the beams of the moon enter beneath the strong leather. When we were finished with the tent, we fed our dragons. Both of them were really exhausted and ready to sleep, after all, it was a tiresome journey for them, too.

Me and Hiccup were comfortably sitting on the pelts, with a little camp fire in front of us. We shared the glass of mead he brought. We were chatting about absolutely unimportant things as if we were waiting for something greater to happen, but neither of us was brave enough to even hint at the delicate subject. We weren't cuddling or anything, but from time to time, he caressed my back a little and I stroked his thigh. There wasn't anything sexual in our gentleness, but we definitely enjoyed the close proximity.

At one point, I stood up to fetch some water and I didn't notice when the little herb pouch that I tied to my belt fell down on the ground. When I came back with the water, I found Hiccup sniffing the content of the little sack…

"Mind if I ask why you carry herbs with you? I mean… don't get me wrong, I just thought you weren't really interested in cooking…"

Before answering his question, I hold out my hand and he placed the pouch on my open palm.

"This is not for cooking," I started lightly "it's medication."

I looked at him and saw that his eyes grew bigger.

"Are you ill or something?"

"No, not at all. I'm healthy as a well-fed Gronckle. It's a contraceptive."

I'm not saying I wasn't enjoying how his face turned beetroot-colored again, because I was plus, finally the cat was out of the bag…

"It's better to be prepared," I said lightly while attaching it back to my belt,"but the brew that's made from it tastes yak piss..."

"Would it help if I drank it?" He inquired with an adorable and confused look, which really amused me.

"No, it wouldn't. It's my task to be prepared," I answered with a giggle.

"Erm… I'm sure I could do something about it, too," Hiccup said stubbornly while his fingers started to caress my upper arm lightly.

"Well, you can make me think that _it_'s worth all the suffering..."

"Gods, woman. When did you become so sassy?" He asked with a huge grin and finally, he pushed me back on the pelts, towering over me as manly as possible, with thirsty lips looking for the ambrosia my mouth was offering.

§§§

After a good twenty minutes of his tongue in my mouth and vice versa, he decided to crawl off me. Unfortunately, it also meant that he pulled his hand out from under my tunic, leaving my raw flesh burning and my heated body crying for his gentle yet demanding touch.

"I thought we should probably go inside. It's getting a bit cold," he said while holding a hand out to help me stand up.

"Good call. I think I'll just crawl in and put on something more comfortable."

"Yeah, I'm sure you can take off your armor, I don't think anyone could ambush us up here. And while you do that, I'll check on the dragons." He stepped closer to me and give a quick peck on my cheek before stepping away from me.

I crawled inside our moonlit tent and took off all my clothes except for the undergarments. I put on a white cotton tunic that I often wear for sleeping and since I had no breast bidings on, I knew that my nipples would show through the light fabric but I didn't think he would mind it at all.

I put my boots back on, not really caring about my weird late night fashion statement, and crawled out to check on him – saying good night to the dragons really shouldn't take this long.

I found him standing in front of our dragons, who were lying in curled up positions, growling and cooing happily as he was simultaneously patting their foreheads.

It was the cutest sight ever and swear to Thor I could watch it until Ragnarök came, if I wasn't craving his attention and his touches so desperately. I stepped closer to him and placed my chin on his shoulder. He immediately tilted his head and placed a light kiss on my forehead.

"Are you ready?" he asked quietly.

I stepped away from him, placing a hand on my waist cockily pushing my hips a little bit forward. His gaze first fell on my boots and I saw how he smiled when he noticed my thin, naked legs in the huge footwear. His eyes slowly crawled further up my body, resting at the places of interest, like the hem of my tunic roughly at the middle of my thighs or the curve of my hips and finally, at my boobs with the two little protruding pebbles…

"Erm… yeah, probably we should go to sleep, too," he said with rosy cheeks. We waved goodbye to the dragons and then he placed light fingers on the small of my back and gently started to push me towards the tent…

A couple long steps later, we were at the entrance and I dropped on my hands and knees and crawled inside before him.

In that position my tunic wasn't really covering anything and when I heard a loud gulp behind me, I was pretty sure that neither of us planned much sleeping…


	3. Betrayals

Once we were inside the tent, I realized that this was going to be the first time we spend the night together. For granted, we have tried all sorts of exciting things together, but this was something new, this was something big. This was no turning back…

We could easily forget that clumsy first shot at making love and go on with our lives. Like two obedient kids who are waiting for their parents' approval and an official date from when on being buried in each other's body is no longer a despicable sin but a sweet obligation.

But we weren't exactly respectful offspring, were about to betray our parents' trust. Of course, Hiccup didn't promise my father that he wouldn't touch me, but my father rightly assumed that the aspiring chief was going to be a gentleman. But…

The forces that pulled us together were a lot stronger than any unsaid vows. I knew I just had to say the word and he would never try anything anymore but I couldn't resist the temptation and I didn't want to. We were one another's destiny, tied together with a million invisible threads and I was ready to fight the world if the world had anything against us being together.

So instead of feeling guilty, I felt that I was right where I had to be, taking the next step in a most exciting journey that we have started only a couple of weeks ago.

These were the tender moments of small discoveries when we were learning new things about each other, things that no one else would ever know about us. Hidden sounds and secret tastes and pleasuring moves were our curriculum, while deep groans and muffled moans were our grades.

I was an eager student and a quick learner, but on the other hand, it was also unsettling; I've never let anyone so close to me. Serious questions were whirling in my head, like 'What would happen if there remain no more secrets? Is it going to feel boring or safe? Would it comfort me or would I feel intimidated?' and I had no one to turn to but him and it was risky…

Suddenly everything started to feel awkward and while I was crawling on all fours to the far end of our tent I didn't dare to turn back and look at him even though I wanted to.

I crawled under the warm pelts with my eyes tightly closed, feeling nothing but a moment of embarrassment and fear. That was ridiculous, he was the sweetest guy on this Earth and I would have trusted my life to him anytime... but still. I was afraid of the unknown lands we were about to explore…

While I was trembling under the furs both because of my worries and the sudden drop in the temperature, I heard him fiddling with the tent door. Then I heard the swishing of his clothes as he took them off...

With my eyes still tightly closed I was wondering if he stripped completely naked... A second later I sensed that he was taking of his metal leg.

While he was preparing for sleeping (or not sleeping at all), I heard him humming the tune of a sweet little song about the prettiest girl who was courted by dozens and she was extremely worried about choosing the thistle instead of the cornflower...

This surprised me a little. I've never ever heard him sing before and his deep and clear voice was pleasantly tickling my ears.

But then everything became silent. I still didn't dare to open my eyes and I was covered with the furs up to my chin.

He was silent for a disturbingly long time, for a good 4 or 5 minutes, and I almost fell asleep when he crawled next to me.

"Are you tired?" He asked and I felt his sweet warm breath warming my nose. I quickly shook my head and smiled like a little girl with eyes still closed.

"So what's with the eyes?" I shrugged under the pelts. I swear to Thor, I've never felt this childish in my life, but I was still afraid to open my eyes and face the beautiful emerald destiny that was surely lurking for me in our shadowy tent.

I felt his hand lightly touching my waist under the sea of furs and I giggled because his long fingers wrinkled my night tunic at the waist and it felt quite ticklish.

I reached down and grabbed his wrist to make him stop and I started to walk my fingers up his arm to check on the extent of his nudity.

His lower arm was definitely free of clothes, so my fingers slowly continued their journey up until the crook of his elbow, where they lingered for a moment. Then I quickly brought them back to his wrist, ghosting around his limb with feathery fingertips.

I felt him shiver and I wanted to feel more…

I quickly lifted my hands up to his shoulders grabbing him, trying to draw him closer. At this point I was sure that he wasn't wearing anything on his upper body, but now, instead of feeling like a shy little girl, I felt like a woman, ready to seduce and be seduced.

To make me slow down a little, he reached for my hand that was still trying to tug him closer, drew it to his lips and lightly kissed my impatient fingers.

Finally, I opened my eyes.

He seemed impossible handsome even in the dim light, with his freckled and toned body as he lay by me, flashing a gap-toothed smile surrounded by manly, auburn stubbles.

For two minutes we were just locking our gazes without saying a word or moving a finger, but then I wanted to end this sensual but tense moment.

I pulled my hand out of his and stretched my arms while a faking a yawn. He smiled at me while I started to kick the pelts off me, revealing my light night clothes and a pair of long, pale legs.

From the corner of my eyes I've noticed that he wasn't wearing anything but a pair of loose linen shorts. I quickly got rid of the pelts between us and when there were no boundaries anymore I turned towards him, lying on my side.

Leaning on one elbow, he placed his hand on the top of my head and he buried his fingers in my hair, stroking my scalp with gentle fingers. A few seconds later he couldn't resist me any longer and ducked down, placing his hot lips on mine.

Our kiss deepened by the second. I placed both of my hands on the back of his neck, trying to pull him even closer and since it wasn't possible, my fingers found the two little braids in his hair I've made a couple of days ago.

It was our thing, new habit of some sort, a little something that was coming from me and he always had it with him...

I smiled into his kiss I felt his lips were curling too. He must have thought that I was encouraging him, because his hand left my hair and started to travel further down.

His fingers caressed the line of my jaw then they rested on my neck for a second. It almost felt as if he was hesitating, but then the curious hand was tenderly landed on my breast. We moaned simultaneously.

He started to massage it, to test its softness and we had to end our kiss because of our constant mumbles of pleasure. When he started to play with my rock hard nipple through the light fabric of my tunic, I wanted to scream.

I wanted him to tear off the useless piece of clothing, I wanted him to ravage my body with the overwhelming passion that was building in both of us.

He must have felt the same way because he ducked down his head and latched on my other nipple while placing a hand on my shoulder, gently making me lie on my back.

Meanwhile, his tongue was moving fast, making my tunic damp and my moans more intensive. My body was literally wiggling under his touch and this was just the beginning.

"Mighty Freya," I sighed loudly, not being in control of my voice anymore when he stopped caressing me with his tongue.

He scooted up next to me and placed a sloppy kiss behind my earlobe."I take it as a compliment," he said with a little laugh. I quickly pinched his arm, because even though I really admired his talents, he just shouldn't have been so pleased with himself.

"Ouch," he said, biting my earlobe a little and making me shiver "Okay, that didn't hurt, it was just fricking sexy," he added with a cheeky smile.

"You know, what's not sexy? That my tunic is soaking in your saliva." I pointed to my right breast which was covered by a dark, sticky spot. It looked ridiculously hot.

"If it disturbs you, we should take it off." His hand snaked down to tug at the hem of my ruined night clothes.

"I don't know," I started trying to sass him, "do you think you can handle all of this?" I pointed to myself with two thumbs.

The hugest smirk appeared on his face. "I'll try to."

His lips were suddenly back on mine again and this time it felt more demanding. He showed a great talent at multitasking, his tongue was still exploring my mouth while he started to pull my tunic up… I stopped our kiss and helped him finish the movement by pulling it over my head and tossing away.

He took a deep breath and instead of immediately ogling at my exposed breasts, he looked deep into my eyes. I knew it was hard for him to resist the temptation…

He put a peck into the corner of my mouth. I hungrily demanded more and we started another endless kissing session. I ghosted his back with my nails and fingers and he did the very same thing on the left side of my body, so both of us were covered in goose bumps in no time.

His fingers slowly moved up from my waistline to the underside of my breast and down back again. He didn't go all the way up to the most sensitive spots and the anticipation was killing me. I wanted to grab his hand and place it where it belonged...

Luckily, a couple more strokes later he pinched my nipple earning another instant from me. He played me like a fiddle and with every brush, every rub, every graze he earned new sounds from me. I was completely mesmerized by his hands but I became greedy and I could kill for his tongue…

He ended our kiss a couple of seconds later and put his mouth to my ear. His hand was still caressing my breast.

"Astrid?" His whisper was gently tickling my ear.

"Hmm?"

"Have I told you that I cannot imagine anything more beautiful than you?"

"Mmm..."

He pushed himself back to his elbow and looked into my eyes. "And this is coming from a man who has seen the sunrise from up above the clouds plenty of times."

His confession filled my heart with love. "When you say things like this, I truly feel beautiful," I answered quietly and brought his fingers to my mouth, putting a gentle kiss on their tips. "And you know, you can look at me anytime you want. Anywhere you want."

He shook his head. "Astrid, I don't want to stare at you." I adored him for being the gentleman, but there was nothing at this pointed I wanted more than his eyes on my body. I got to my elbows and slowly freed my braids, letting my hair fall on to my shoulders and beyond.

He couldn't resist the temptation anymore. I adjusted my posture, so he could have a better view of my chest, which he thanked with a sharp groan.

"I have no words for this..."

I leaned closer to him, placing a kiss on his cheek. "Hiccup, it might sound weird, but I find you beautiful too."

"You do?" He asked back sounding a bit surprised.

"I do," I assured him before getting hold of his hand and placing it on my heart that was beating unbelievably fast. "You feel that?" He nodded lightly while breathing heavily.

"Astrid, I don't think I tell you enough just how much I love you."

"You do. And even if you didn't, I wouldn't have any doubts."

I looked at him and felt that something deeply disturbs him. "What is it?" I asked worried, preparing for the worst.

"I feel like I'm disrespecting your dad. He let me take you here and I..."

"Hiccup, do you really need help with the mapping?"

"I do, I really do, I just..." He stopped and shook his head before admitting to the obvious lie. "I could do it alone," he said and his face turned crimson.

"I figured," I commented quietly.

"I'm sorry."

"Listen, I don't think there's anything wrong about us wanting to be together." I placed a hand on his chin, turning his face to look into my eyes He still seemed quiet embarrassed. "We don't do things the traditional way, but I don't feel ashamed. We have always been different, that's what got us here. We wouldn't be able to ride dragons if you obeyed your father..."

"That's one way to look at it, but… I don't see the _beneficial_ side of what we're about to do..."

"Stop over-analyzing and lie back!" I ordered him firmly and without hesitation, he did it.

I quickly crawled on top of him and sat on his crouch. I grabbed him by his wrists and placed both of his palms on my breasts.

"Let me show you the beneficial sides," I said while bending down to kiss him...


	4. Memories I - Forge

"Umpf," he groaned when I ground myself against his crotch. There wasn't much separating our most delicate body parts, just his light canvas shorts and the pair of undergarments I was wearing. As I sat on him, I could feel him growing underneath...

I finished kissing him and let out a couple of little moans, because his warm hands on my sensitive breasts were still filling me up with excitement. I looked into his eye and I noticed that whenever I took a deeper breath and my boobs moved under his calloused palms, his pupils dilated. It almost made me laugh, because it reminded me of how he almost screamed when he saw my bare chest _sans_ the useless bindings for the very first time.

It happened right before last Snoggletog. Back then, our relationship was pretty innocent, almost chaste. Of course we had our fair share of kisses and we did some feeling up and fondling, but nothing without the boundaries of our clothes. And I have to admit, it was getting wonted. Or I was just generally bored since my beautiful girl dragon had left with the others to lay their eggs...

We were at that stage when kissing never felt awkward anymore and it started to turn from a rather innocent thing into something more sensual, more demanding. I wanted more. I wanted to take the next step and I didn't want to wait for long months until he gathers his courage and tries to take off my underclothes...

The day before Snoggletog I promised him that I'd drop by the forge when the sun sets to keep him company while he did some last minute hammering on the festive ornaments.

I have to admit, that I was well-prepared for that night. I put on my leggings and boots and nothing else; the upper half of my body was completely naked under my wolf-skin winter coat.

When the sun started to set, I sneaked near the smithy and I was lurking in the shadows like a Thorforsaken thief for a good twenty minutes. I was waiting for Gobber to leave the shop, because I knew he was invited to hour house to have a little pre-Snoggletog celebration with my father. This usually meant drinking a lot of ale and being very noisy, until my mom asked me to escort Gobber home – well, tonight, she would have to solve it on her own as I had other plans.

When I saw the blacksmith leave, I waited for another 10 minutes just to make sure he wouldn't come back to interrupt the sweet and lustful surprise I was planning on.

I opened the door of the forge and shouted a confident 'hello' to Hiccup, who was in his little room at the back of the shop. I brushed the snow off of my boots and coat and turned back to lock the door, I didn't want to take my chances...

I was glad that he didn't catch me in the act, so he couldn't question my ulterior motives... Seriously, what could I have told him then? "_Oh, this is nothing serious, honey. You're just a little too shy and every time we kiss and you fondle my breasts without trying to slip your hot hands under the two layers of clothes I'm wearing, I feel like I want to scratch my face off... But, you know what? This time I won't give you the chance to avoid them, so Hiccup – boobs, boobs – Hiccup. You're going to love each other._" It sounded way better in my head, and of course I was nowhere confident enough to make a pep talk about it, but I was brave enough to push him into a chair when he came out to greet me and sit on his lap, kissing him truly, madly, deeply.

He started to unbutton my coat - most of the time he was 'bold' enough to fiddle with the buttons and the straps on my clothes and he often helped me take off my coat, but it was more of a polite gesture than anything else . Being overly impatient, I helped him with the last two, then I broke our kiss and casually dropped the furcoat on the floor, exposing my bare skin to him.

His reaction was unforgettable.

He looked at me with eyes three times bigger than their normal size then his jaw dropped, and a second later he had to put a fist in it and bite on his fingers to avoid a very possible scream. When he took his hand out of mouth, I flashed him my most innocent smile and ducked down to kiss him as if nothing unusual had happened.

He was so shocked that he couldn't kiss me back. I stopped licking his lips and casually put a small peck on the corner of his mouth before straightening myself while sitting on his lap.

"Astrid?" He said with a trembling voice after the biggest gulp I've ever heard.

"Yes?"

"Why would you do that?" He sounded almost worried.

I shrugged and decided on treating him with a few more kisses. "Mmm... I thought we should mmm... take the next step."

"But what if someone comes in?"

Now he sounded genuinely worried which was partly adorable, party annoying, because his hands were still hanging by his side instead of exploring the parts of my body I've just offered him on a silver plate.

"I locked the door," I placed another peck this time on his jawline. I leaned close enough to him to feel the rough fabric of his tunic brushing my nipples. My blood started to boil and I really, really wanted him to do something about it...

"What if Gobber comes back?"

I rolled my eyes upon hearing another stupid question... _What if? What if? What if you'd put your damn hands on me, Haddock?_

"Hiccup... he's drinking with my father. Stop it." _Or rather, start it..._ \- I thought.

I might have sounded a bit agitated because instead of asking another imbecile thing, he gently put his hands on my waist.

"Your skin is cold," he stated while his thumbs were lightly stroking my sides.

"Make me warm then," I purred into his ears after putting my head on his shoulder and my arms around his neck.

"Mmm okay, how about that?" He slipped his fingers further up on my body and I twitched when his fingertips brushed the underside of my breasts. It felt ticklish, but good ticklish and my heart started to beat ten times faster. It was really getting warmer...

"And this?" The fingers were now up at my nipples, brushing, rubbing, pinching them – once he decided on learning something he was a diligent student, to say the least.

I buried my face into his neck and I started panting. It felt a lot better that I thought it would. My cheeks were burning and I was sure that they were red as the ripest apple. To my greatest surprise, the former Mr. Shy Lamb was now the the statue of self-confidence, his hands still squeezing my boobs, making my forehead sweat. When I lifted my head, I saw a cocky smile on his ridiculously handsome face.

"I think, you should take off your tunic. This feels very one-sided," I panted awkwardly.

"Fair enough." He happily obliged and was shirtless in no time.

I tangled my arms behind his neck once again and pulled him as close to me as it was physically possible.

"This feels very nice." I heard him whisper in my ear, while he started to stroke my spine lightly with a finger.

"Mmm," that was all I could react in that little moment of perfectness.

"You're batshit crazy sometimes, you know?"

I cleared my throat before answering him. "One of us has to be crazy otherwise we'd be still at that stage when you stare at me with eyes almost falling out of their sockets, but you don't even dare to say 'hello' to me."

He put his palms on my shoulders and pushed me away a little to be able to look into my eyes.

"So you want me to be braver?" he asked gently, cupping my face with his hands. I nodded.

"I could do that. I guess it's time..." His voice was barely audible but his actions spoke a lot louder than words. He brought my face closer to his and kissed me softly. He continued with a second kiss while he removed his hands from my cheeks and placed them on my waist again, stroking my sides.

His lips left my mouth and landed on the pulse point on my neck and he was gently sucking on it while I was concentrating on not forgetting how to breathe... Then came my clavicle. He bit it softly, which move earned him a deep, guttural moan from me and I almost felt guilty when I unintentionally buried all 10 of my fingers into the freckled skin on his back...

I whispered a quiet 'sorry', but he was unstoppable now. He tilted his head and latched on my right nipple with burning ears and hungry lips. Now it was my turn to bury a fist in my mouth... As he continued with his wonderful tongue-work, I bit myself even harder.

He left my right nipple for the left and repeated the same mind-blowingly marvelous operation, then he lifted his head and pressed his forehead to mine.

"My head will explode if I continue with this," he admitted.

"I think it's not your head that will explode," I answered panting but cheeky. Sitting in his lap, I perfectly felt just how much he enjoyed our little late night adventure...

"Trust me, it's both my head and..._ that_."

"Okay, I'm in," I said cheerfully, placing a little kiss on his nose. He seemed confused when I leaned back and looked at him.

"In...what?"

"You know... make you explode?"

Poor Hiccup, upon understanding what I have just said to him, almost fainted; he was paler than a ghost.

A moment later, he gathered himself and shook his head firmly. "No, no. Absolutely no."

"Why?"

"Because I... I like crazy," he said gesturing at my boobs, "but... there's crazy and there's off limits and _that_ would be off limits."

It seemed that there was time for a little encouragement again, so I smiled at him softly and started to stroke his neck with a finger.

"Look. I like you. I really, really like you. And because I like you, I want to make you happy. And apart from wanting to make you happy, I'm also curious. It's Snoggletog, everybody is in festive mood and... have I mentioned, I like you and I want to make you happy?"

He didn't say a word just looked at me with those gorgeously green eyes.

I stood up and grabbed his hand. "Come on, let's get comfortable."

I led him to the bed they had in the forge, only Gobber knows why. It was so out of place, but from that day, it became one of our greatest allies...

My dearest still behaved a bit disoriented, so I made him sit down and hopped next to him. He was stiff as a stick and I knew I had to make him more relaxed or we would never be able to get from one to two.

"Hiccup," I started, looking deep into his eyes, "I meant what I've just said. I really want to give _it_ a try. And if... if it's easier for you this way, I promise I won't look. I'll keep my eyes shut."

For a moment, I feared that he'd jump and run away, but he just broke our I contact and looked down on my hand that was still holding his.

"That could work," he mumbled.

I felt so overjoyed that I pulled my hand away and I clapped – probably it wasn't the most common reaction, but at least it made him smile.

"Crazy."

"Sorry. I shouldn't have done that. Erm... do you need anything for the...?" I asked and it just occurred to me that even though I sounded like I was more than ready to dive into the new waters, I didn't know shit about what was going to happen.

For granted, Ruffnut, the dame of double dating, who was more experienced at this point in life concerning this specific area, often tried to tell me about her experiences with Snotlout and Fishlegs, but I immediately stopped her after she had said the word 'dick', which was usually her third, after a pronoun and a verb.

With rosy cheeks I looked down on Hiccups crotch and even in the dim light it was quite visible that the effect my half-nakedness had on him didn't go away.

"So... anything?"

"Huh... yeah, probably a rag or..." He got off from the bed and went back to his table, taking a piece of cloth from the top drawer. He sat back next to me, clutching to the rag in his left hand for dear life. It started to feel awkward again...

"Do you want me to put on a blindfold?" I asked, poking him in the chest.

"What? Oh, no, just promise you won't stare."

"I won't."

"Okay." Another tense half minute passed.

"So?" I asked trying not to sound impatient, even if I was.

"Okay, just let me pull of my pants, and... I don't know... Could we sit still for a little while? Until I get used to the feeling of being..._ exposed_?"

I nodded and tried to look somewhere behind him while he raised his hip and pulled his leggings down. There were so interesting cracks on the wall...

We sat there for a couple if minutes, me checking out the wooden structure, him trying to even his breathing. Finally, he broke the silence.

"Are you ready?" His voice sounded weak and I felt a growing uneasiness and a little anxiety. What if it turns out to be the biggest mistake of our lives? Well, there was no turning back now. Besides, Astrid Hofferson never turns back. No part of any Haddock could ever intimidate her.

"I am," I said firmly.

"I think I'll just kiss you first and then I'll take your hand and I'll put it on_ it_ and then... huh, I show you the..."

"Rhythm?"

He nodded and my answer was a quiet 'okay'.

"Close your eyes, please," he said, brushing my bangs away from my sweaty forehead. I did as I was told. A second later his damp, shivering lips were on mine, his tongue seeking for refuge.

This kiss was different from all our previous ones, it wasn't worse or better, but there were a lot at stake. I was full of expectations - spiced with a pinch of worry.

Suddenly, I felt his hand timidly searching for mine, taking it gingerly. His tongue escaped my mouth for a quick moan when he placed my fingers on his... _on himself_.

It was shocking at first. A handful of raw flesh, hard yet so soft, his core, his very essence, his most protected secret, the sacred idol that only I could worship... It was so big... In all senses.

I was tempted to look down, but I didn't want to break my promise, so I had to rely on my sense of touch. With his fingers on top of my hand, he showed me how I should move with a couple of gentle squeezes and pulls and when his kisses on my lips became slower and clumsier, I knew I was on the right track.

Up and down, up and down, pants and shivers, pants and shivers.

My wrist started to ache a little, the position wasn't the most comfortable, but at that point he was literally grinding his teeth and his breathing was alarmingly uneven, so I didn't dare to complain about my untrained hands.

"I'm... close," he moaned and I tried to pump a little faster and harder and even though my wrist was practically killing me, but the sounds he made was worth all the suffering. Then he suddenly covered everything with the rag he was holding and I felt him pulsating under my fingers with the whisper of my name on his lips.

It was the most fascinating thing I've ever seen working (or not seen, just felt), and him moaning my name an octave deeper than his normal voice was the sexiest thing I've ever heard.

"Erm, would you let me...?"

"Sure, sure," I said quickly letting go of him. I kept my eyes closed, but I heard him moving around the room – I assumed he was probably cleaning himself.

He sat back next to me and placed the hugest kiss on my cheek. I opened my eyes and I swear to Thor, he was a changed man. His eyes were glowing and his gap-toothed smile was wider than ever. He drew me closer to him then placed a finger on my stomach and started to draw imaginary circles around my navel.

"It was the greatest thing that has ever happened to me," he whispered into my ear, "Sorry for almost chickening out."

"It's okay, I've learned how to handle you."

"Oh, you handle me quite well." His fingers were still moving around my navel and I started to suspect that he did it on purpose...

"Let me pay you back." He started fiddling with the hem of my leggings. Before I could say a thing, his lips locked on my nipple again, firing up the flames in my core again, but I... I wasn't ready.

I pushed him away a little. "Hiccup, please..."

He stopped doing the amazing thing he was occupied with and looked at me with uncertain eyes.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not ready to take off my pants in front of you. Not even with your eyes closed. Not even if you poked them out with a hot iron bar."

I saw a deep sorrow in his eyes.

"Not that I want you to do anything with your eyes, I like them as they are..." I added trying to lighten up his mood a bit. "I promise, I'll be ready. Soon. Just not right now."

Gods, I almost gave in to the pressure a second later, because the burning sensation in my core was almost painful now...

"Erm, what if you leave your leggings on while I'll try to touch you? Would that work?"

His question caught me unprepared. My gut instinct was to say no immediately, but he was doing his irresistible sad little runt eyes plus it was really no big deal, after all, he wanted to touch me through two layers of fabric. '_I most probably won't feel a thing,_' I assumed and it seemed that it was very important for him.

"Sure, I guess," I said finally, earning another gap-toothed smile before he went to hunt down my lips for the millionth time that evening. His fingers continued to ghost my stomach, then they traveled further down. I was very okay with that and apart from the pulsation of my womanhood, I really didn't feel anything.

His mouth left my lips for my nipples and that was the point when I started to realize just how wet I had become down there... I felt like I was melting. Melting into his hand that now slipped between my legs. I had no control of my limbs anymore, they opened independently to welcome his fingers.

I was wrong. I was sooo wrong. I felt everything. My clothes were thin and his touch was strong. He started to massage me while his tongue was playing an evil game of lick and suck with my sensitive nipples. I started to pant really heavily, grabbing onto his hair, arching my body...

I have to admit that I didn't even last for 30 seconds, I was so worked up and he was so determined to help me out. My memories are vague, because I felt like I had jumped down from the highest cliff on Berk, but I might have screamed a little and I'm pretty sure that I've bitten his shoulder... Yeah, he had my teeth mark on him for weeks...

§§§

The memory of our first clumsy but mutually satisfying orgasm is a thing I always like to recall. Even if he behaved like a complete idiot afterwards, leaving a snowdrop on my windowsill every morning for a week, only stopping when I punched his arm three times in a row and I fed him a handful of snow.

And now, here we were, several months later, very close to satisfying each other again. Or at least so I hoped.

"Hiccup," I started quietly "I'm sorry that I don't care about or parents or the traditions of our tribe. Truth be told, I only care about you and my unity with you, cheesy as it may sound. Also, it literally hurts that I haven't had the chance to be with you for weeks."

He looked at me with astonished eyes, then opened his arms. I quickly laid down on him, finding comfort in his closeness, while his arms tied me down to his chest.

For a couple of minutes we just breathed in unison, my chest elevating and descending with his, as if we were glued together.

Then he broke the silence...

"Astrid?"

"Hmm?"

"I don't think I'll ever be able to deny anything from you."


	5. Cliffs

I lay on top of his body, melting into him while his hands were tied around my waist, holding me strong, pressing our cores together. There was no movement for a while, apart from the slow rising and sinking of our chests that were completely glued together as we took our breathes simultaneously.

The lump of flesh underneath my loins was slowly growing and it started to make me feel restless; I needed him to be a part of me again.

"I want to give it another go," I whispered into his ear in a ridiculously lustful way that was totally unintentional.

"To give what a go?" He asked back, amused, and even though we were both very well aware of the action I was hinting at, his cocky side wanted me to say it out loud.

I hesitated for a slow second then I felt confident enough to lean a little closer to him and say the word "sex" into the dark little passage leading up to his brain.

He twitched under me and I felt the lump move and getting slightly bigger... Our words had a great power, they made our feelings stronger and us greedier and when he hesitated with his answer, I started to feel slightly disappointed.

To tell the truth, I expected him to immediately turn me over and conquer my body, but he stayed calm under me, only panting slightly bit faster than before. A little later the waiting game started to make me feel uncomfortable, and I was wondering whether I made a faux pas by saying the word that was often considered improper, even if it was one of the best things I've ever tried.

After another minute of heavy silence, I broke our bond and lifted my head up to look into his eyes. His eyes seemed a bit blurry, but there was a stupid little smile in the left corner of his mouth, giving him a sassy, annoying look, but I was still wondering about why didn't jump on me right after hearing that I wanted him. He was a young man after all, who was given permission to have sex...

"Is there something wrong?" I asked him finally with a weakening voice. He shook his head and lifted his hands from my waist to cup my face and pull it down for a gentle little kiss.

"No, silly. On the contrary..." His voice was muffled, but he sounded happy. I still didn't understand the situation at all, and the only thing I craved more than him, was a proper explanation for his slow reaction.

"There's nothing I want more, it's just..." He stopped at that, searching for the right words and by every passing second I got closer to a heart attack. At this point some part of me feared that he would say something about my body odor repelling him or that he had met someone, who was more interesting, but other parts of me just knew that he wasn't that type of guy. But I still didn't know what his problem was...

He finally put his hands back on my waist and he carefully lifted me up while rolling over to his side, placing me next to him on the pelts. His hands were quickly back at my face, one finger caressing it lightly, up and down from my temple to my jawline. He then placed his hungry mouth on mine, pushing his tongue gently in, exploring me while his hand shifted down to my breast, greedily fondling it in a most desperate manner.

He deepened our kiss, but much to my disappointment, his hand left my sensitive breast and ended up on my protruding hipbone. He ended our kiss and leaned closer to my ear.

"Trust me, there's nothing I want more, I just want you to feel more comfortable with me."

"But I am. I am comfortable with you," I objected trying to deny the obvious, because I thought that letting him inside of me was probably the deepest level of trust. On the other hand, deep down in my heart, I knew what he was referring to, especially when his fingers slipped under the hem of my undergarments.

He stopped immediately but his fingers were burning my skin and I started to sweat for all the wrong reason: his closeness to my womanhood made me embarrassed instead of excited.

"I don't see why you are insisting on touching me_ there_," I said finally, carefully avoiding naming the body part I felt so uncomfortable about.

"So you just want me to put my penis inside you and that's all?" The rawness in his tone and the vulgar word came as a shock. I looked down on his hand that was still patiently waiting at my hip, halfway under my underpants.

"Isn't that all you want?" I asked back quietly still fixing the little bump his fingers formed under my undergarments.

"You are very stupid," he said and the harsh words were followed by an offending laugh, "I want so much more. I want to know and worship each and every inch of you." He waited for a second before continuing. "I need to know how to make you, erm... happy."

"But you make me perfectly happy," I protested.

"Well, I still think I could improve my 'making you happy' technique, I'm just facing some unwanted obstacles," his fingers moved under the light fabric and my hand immediately landed on his to stop any further intrusion.

"Trust me, you don't want to do that..." I said with a nervous laugh.

"Trust me, that's all I want to do. Ever since I was 16."

"Hah, when you were 16, all you cared about was dragons and training."

"And you."

"That's a lie."

"Astrid... you don't want to know how many nights I've spent dreaming about _touching you_." His voice sounded a bit disappointed, and he had ever right to feel that way as I was questioning his feelings because of my stubborn self-consciousness.

"I'm... believe me it's erm... I'm disgusting down there."

"Let me be the judge of that," he started to sound a bit annoyed, but the again, I was a nuisance. Yet the whole still felt beyond awkward...

"I'm all... wet," I said finally and my face was burning with shame.

"Gods, Astrid... You have to be, otherwise it'd be really hurtful for the both of us. Plus, that's _my_ effect on you, if I'm not mistaken, and I cannot imagine anything more exciting."

I didn't gave it up yet, I still had one big issue. "And... I'm not like the rest of the girls down there..." I was trying to hint at a little thing that I've always felt very uncomfortable about ever since I knew that I was different from, well, most women...

He looked at me and I could feel how hard he was thinking, trying to figure out what I felt so unhappy about...

A moment later, the biggest smirk appeared on his face.

"Babe, I just love that you're... blonde... erm... _everywhere_," he said with a lopsided smile, "I find it so awesome, that it's actually painfully hard not being able to brag about it."

I was shocked. How on Earth did he know about it? I was sure I didn't mention it to him, it was a sensitive secret in my life and that one time when we were together, I didn't let him to explore all of my body.

"I... how do you even know about that?" I ask sounding a bit frustrated.

"I like to check where I put my..." I lifted myself up quickly and punched his arm as hard as I could before he had the chance to say_ that_ word again.

"Ouch, it's really unfair that you are this strong," he complained while massaging the painful bruise I gave him, but a moment later he looked at me with his bottomless emerald eyes "Listen. I really want you to know and to believe that I crave you. I'm mad about you, all parts of you. And I'd really appreciate if you let me prove it to you."

"How?" I asked weakly, trying to hide the tremble in my voice by saying as few words as possible. I was so worried about all the things that might follow...

"Okay. First of all, I think you should take off all your clothes."

"But I..." I wanted to say a good excuse to prolong getting rid of my underclothes, but nothing really came to my mind.

"Come on, woman," he demanded gently, tugging the small piece of clothing, "you are so beautiful."

I finally gave in. I rested on my back and lifted my hips to help him pull them off. He then looked back at me while I was lying in front of him, all exposed. For a good couple of seconds his gaze was traveling up and down on me, lingering at my perky breasts, my flat stomach and the golden curls at the top of my tightly pressed thighs.

He was amazed by what he saw. He then put his index finger on my clavicle and painstakingly slowly he started to pull it down, lightly touching my chest, my hard nipple, going further down to my stomach, dwelling on my navel for a while.

He stopped at my curls and a small smile appeared on his face. I was panting a little bit heavier because of my ever growing nervousness...

A minute or so later his hand was back again at my face, light fingers trying to stroke away my worried expression. He slowly leaned down to place a little peck on my lips.

"Astrid, I don't think I'll ever see anything more beautiful than you in this life," he said while pressing his forehead to mine.

"Thank you," I answered not being able to come up with anything better.

"Do you trust me?" He asked and after a moment of hesitation, I nodded.

"Then close your eyes, please, and let me try to make both of us very happy."

I nodded again and did as I was told.

He leaned closer to me, placing a hand on my hip, kissing my neck. His fingers were ghosting around my hipbone, drawing small circles on it while his mouth traveled further down on my body, placing small pecks all the way before reaching my pebbling nipple. He gently latched on it and started to suck lightly.

When the first little moan escaped my lips, his fingers moved from my hip to my golden curls and even further down where my thighs were still tightly pressed together.

First I thought he would try to spread them apart, but instead, his crafty fingers just slipped in a little and started to massage me with the same little circles as before, making me to unintentionally open my legs a bit. At this point, my body took over the control from my mind, knowing all too well what his clever fingers were capable of doing.

His hand slipped further inside, reaching the little sensible bump of pleasure that I had between my legs. I was already soaking in my juices when he started to massage the little knot, making my body arch and my muscles tense in expectations of the pleasures I was heading towards.

Now his soft lips left my nipple and landed on my navel, licking it with firm strokes and just when I started to feel that I could bare no more of his mind blowing operations, he put a finger into my damp cave sliding into it as deep as he could, making me groan. He pulled it out slowly and added another finger pushing both of them in and then he pulled them out again, in and out, in and out, faster and faster with each move, making my walls clench around the blessed digits.

For a second, I didn't pay attention to his lips, which were now down at my curls, dangerously close to my opening... I felt that I wasn't in control of my body again when I felt that my legs spread even more apart, giving his tongue a much better access.

When I felt it on my clit for the first time, a loud scream left my lips, which made him suck onto it making me fly to a height of which I wasn't even aware of before, while his calloused fingers – now no less then three of them – were still entering and exiting my insides at an impossibly pleasuring pace.

My toes were curled up to the point when it started to feel painful and the heat inside me became almost unbearable. My hands landed on the top of his head, trying to caress his silky hair, but ending up grabbing and pulling it.

A moment later I felt that I was on the top of the highest mountain and then I was suddenly speeding down on its slopes at the highest speed humanly possible, heading towards the cliffs from which I was ready to jump into the great unknown.

At this point all of my body was covered in a thin layer of sweat, even my fingers that were grabbing his hair became slippery.

He sensed that only moments separated me from the orgasm of a lifetime. I was at the cliffs, ready to be pushed down by him, so he sped up the movement of his fingers and he pushed his tongue harder to my bump, licking it with the firmest, fastest strokes.

I cried his name out loud when he finally pushed me over the edge, and I was just falling, falling, falling for long seconds with my body twisting and twirling on the furs.

A little later, still with eyes closed, I started to see the light at the end of the dark tunnel I had gotten somehow inside of. He slowed his moves, because he had already learned it the hard way that I became very sensitive right after coming, so he gently pulled his fingers out of me when he heard my small, uneven pants.

He raised his head to look at my post-coital bliss and carefully crawled up closer to my wrecked body and I felt like a little rag doll dropped on the floor by a careless child.

My pants now were turning into a sob, tears were falling down on my cheeks. He must have known that these were not the signs of sorrow, but of the ultimate pleasure he had just given me, so he started to slowly kiss them down from my face one by one, while gently caressing my side.

Finally I was capable of moving my head and my lips were searching for his mouth. I found it easily as he was practically offering it to me and in the next couple of seconds I tried to express my gratitude towards him with the gentle movements of my tongue, being very well aware of the fact that I wouldn't be able to utter my true feelings with the clumsy words of our language.

When we finally parted, I pressed my sweaty forehead to his neck, still sobbing a little.

"That was... unbelievable," was all I could say.

"I know," he whispered back simply and pressed his body closer to mine.


	6. Books

After a little cuddling, both my pride and my strength came back and I pushed myself up, facing him, putting my weight on my elbow. The stupid 'I've done something really good' look on his face started to irritate me big time, plus it didn't help that in my current position, my breasts were pressed together and his eyes constantly shifted back to them, shamelessly ogling the two little mounds.

I lift my fist up and hit him hard on the upper arm.

"Ouch, what was that for?" He complained rubbing the spot that was quickly turning red.

"For forcing me to do something I didn't really want to do," I explained then I leaned down to give him a small, sensual kiss on the mouth, biting his lower lip a little. "And that's for doing what you did."

I loved the quizzical look on his face. He decided to lie back on his back, crossing his arms below his head, asking a rhetorical question: "Why in Thor's name did I fall for Astrid Hofferson, the queen of pain and pleasure?"

"Blah, big words," I mocked him while lying back next to him, pressing my breasts to his side, putting a hand on his chest. I started playing with the auburn hair that covered it, combing and tugging it with my fingers.

"I only gave you pain one time..." he said quietly, big green eyes searching for my forgiveness. I shook his shoulder a little, because I knew he was referring to our first time together and even though it was so Hiccup-y to take the blame for it, he really should not have felt that it was his fault and it wasn't a _fault_, after all.

"That was unavoidable. Plus, it wasn't the worst type of pain in the world. Plus I wanted it just as bad as you did," I assured him while gently stroking his bangs away from his eyes. "The pain I felt after you had fought the Red Death... was way worse," I admitted and my cheeks were turning red because of the confession I was about to make. "I might have already had a little crush on you back then..."

And finally the confident smirk was back on his face. He pulled me closer for a kiss after which I placed my head on his chest to listen to his heartbeat. His fingers were gently massaging my scalp, tangling my hair and I didn't mind it at all.

"Anyways," I muttered to his chest, "how do you know so much about... _female anatomy_?" His fingers stopped in my hair and he let out a laugh.

"From Snotlout."

"Wait, what?!" I lifted my head up quickly to look into his eyes. "I can't believe that you've asked him of all people about how to... _please_ a woman."

He continued with the laugh, unmistakably enjoying the situation and my discomfort.

"No, I didn't ask him, it was sort of an _indirect _thing. You remember when a couple of weeks ago Trader Johann came to Berk and Snot was all excited about a book he ordered from him?"

"Yeah, I do. I was kind of surprised. I thought he couldn't even read."

"Well... there are lots of pictures in that book," he said winking at me while placing his hand back on my side, stroking it lightly.

"No, no, no," I said shaking my head, "It was a book about _women_?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, a very nicely _detailed_ one."

"And you borrowed it from him?!"

"What? Gods, no. He left it on my table at the academy and... yeah, I might have read a few pages... I thought it could come... handy... sometime."

Finally the puzzle pieces started to come together. "Was that the _exotic fruit book_ he was so desperately looking for one morning?" I asked now with a lot lighter heart, remembering Snotlout's red, sweaty face when he rushed into Hiccup's office.

"Yep. The _exotic fruit book_. In his defense, there's a drawing on the cover of a... well, let's just say it _does_ look like an exotic fruit."

We were both laughing at this point, then he pushed himself up and me down, on my back, and started to place little pecks on my collarbone.

"So, the book gave me a few ideas..." His lips were now getting closer and closer to my breasts and I started to feel that the heat was building up in my core again.

"Good ones, actually," I agreed.

"Well, I think I've successfully mastered the 'How to make your woman scream' chapter." My fist was up in the air again but this time he counted on it, so he gently caught my wrist before I could punch him again. Meanwhile, his lips reached my nipple making me completely defenseless as the pleasure started to take over my body, so I just let him place my hand back at my side.

"Okay," I sighed, "I did scream." I felt his lips curl up in a smile before he started to suck my little rosy nipple. His hand was also busy finding its way between my legs again, ghosting around my folds, making me shiver.

I decided on playing a more active role in our little game, so I snaked down a hand to cup his bulge that grew bigger with every little stroke of my fingers.

"I hope, our dragons didn't think you were murdering me," I said, trying to tease him. With a little 'plop' sound he slipped his mouth off my nipple, looking back at me, fingers still lightly rubbing me between my legs.

"I sort of told Toothless what we were up to."

I closed my legs, pressing my tights together, trapping his fingers between them. "What?!"

"Trust me, it's better this way. Otherwise, he'd poke his head in every 30 minutes to check on us."

"And what exactly did you tell him?!" I still couldn't believe that he had shared such personal information with his dragon. I didn't know whether I would ever share such information with Stormfly, even though she probably had a better idea about the whole process than the poor, lonely Night Fury.

"I told him that I really liked you and I wanted to mate with you. Well, sort of. But hey, he approved it."

"Pff... your relationship is weird."

"Our relationship is honest."

"It's_ honestly weird_."

"Trust me, if I hadn't told him, he'd try to sneak in our tent."

"Blame it on your bad parenting. You shouldn't have let him crawl in your bed every other night."

"In my defense, I thought he'd be the only one volunteering to snuggle with me under the pelts."

"And now people are queuing at your bedroom door?"

"Well, not really, but there's this one girl..." At this point I might have given him the evil eye, because he became defensive. "Hey, I was referring to you..."

"I never said I wanted to be in your bed."

"Hah, too late, you've already been in my bed."

"Not for long, though."

"Performance jokes, really?" He pouted at me in the cutest, most irresistible way.

"Sorry, I'm unnecessary mean," I admitted, "But it's probably because I'm starting to really want you and you should get rid of these," I said tugging the strap on his shorts, "A little...erm... training won't hurt and we have your buddy's approval," I added cheekily.

I didn't even have the time to finish my sentence, he quickly pulled his hand out from my thighs' grip to be able to get back on his knees. He got rid of the totally unnecessary piece of clothing in no time.

When he lay back next to me, I gently laced my fingers around his member and started to pump it really, really slowly. It felt bigger than ever before.

"I feel someone is getting ready to have some fun," I said giggling because of all the little sighs he was making thanks to my delicate operations.

"Gods, woman, stop saying things like that or I won't last for more than 10 seconds," he panted.

I enjoyed the power I had over him, it was nice to be in the dominant position again - not that it was a competition between us, but I felt that I needed to pay him back for all the wonderful little things he had already done to me.

So I continued with the pumping, up and down. I was stroking and scratching him a bit with my nails and when I felt that some pre-cum was oozing out of him, I spread it on his member, making him grunt and tremble.

"A-a-a..'strid, wow," he panted, "Let's just stop for a se-cond."

I stopped and placed my hand on his hipbone. "You okay?"

"Sure, sure, I'm... I just wanted to prolong things a bit. You are too good at doing this."

"And I didn't even need books for that. It's just pure talent," I added proudly.

"Oh, don't sass me," he said while getting to his elbows looking at me with groggy eyes. He seemed a bit lost but it was so adorable and I wanted to hug him, except we had some serious business to do...

"Come 'ere, you," I said gently spreading my legs wide open, indicating where I want him. He sat up with a grunt marveling at my very naked body in front of him with loving eyes.

"Erm, I'm sorry, I think I need to take it off," he said awkwardly pointing at his peg leg.

"Hiccup."

"Hmm?"

"Just do it. It's totally okay," I said and I caressed his arm with my fingers in the kindest possible way.

He turned away to do what he needed to do, but I had his full attention again a couple of seconds later. I lifted up my arms to welcome him on top of me and he crawled in position. He placed his hands on each side of my head to support his weight leaning down to gently kiss me.

"Do you think you're ready?" He asked timidly after our lips departed.

"I'm ready as I'll ever be," I assured him while helping his member to my juicy entrance. When he was all inside me a moment later, I almost screamed again in pleasure, but I quickly placed the back of my hand on my mouth. It made both of us giggle.

"I guess it's not hurting you anymore," he whispered into my ear jokingly while pushing himself out slowly then back in again.

"On the contrary," I groaned and closed my heavy eyelids to be able to fully enjoy the sensation. His moves became faster with every push, but I knew that he wasn't at full speed yet. My ankles were crossed behind him, with heels gently pressing to his prefect butt, but a moment later I figured if I lifted my leg up and place it on his shoulder, he could enter into me even deeper...

"Astrid, you're killing me," he hissed between his teeth when my ankle landed on his shoulder as he diligently continued with his ins and outs.

"The feeling is very mutual," I panted, "I think I'll just faint..."

"Don't do that, I need you," he said while turning his head to kiss my foot that was right next to his ear. When he was done, he placed his weight on one hand and gently reached for my ankle, lifting it up to be able to penetrate me even deeper.

His pubic bone was massaging my sensitive bump with every thrust and I buried all ten of my nails into his back, scratching it unintentionally in my almost unbearable pleasure.

He placed my leg back on his shoulder to be able to put his fingers on my clit, making his perfect little circles that I enjoyed the most. I opened my eyes and I saw him peeking down between us to entertain himself with the sight of his shaft leaving and returning into me.

His visual pleasure made him let out deep, guttural moans and when he started to rub me even harder, I couldn't help but scratched his back again.

"Argh, I think I'll be done in 2 seconds," he grunted but I didn't last that long, I started to tremble under him like a leaf in the autumn wind, turning my head from one side to the other, biting my lip, praising his name.

I wanted this moment to last for ever, but the joyous state of my body started to fade away soon...

The next thing I felt was him pulling out of me and then came a sudden warm sensation on my stomach, when he emptied himself on me. I'm not saying I minded it, because I found it ridiculously sexy.

He collapsed back next to me, unsuccessfully trying to speak for almost a minute.

"I-I'm sorry I did..."

"It's okay, it's okay, just relax," I said trying to calm him, not wanting him to feel embarrassed when he really shouldn't be.

"I'll clean you in a minute," he said still panting, "I should have warned you, I guess I just kind of forgot about the end of the... whole _process_."

"And how is that even possible?" I inquired.

He snuggled closer to me to speak right into my ear. The warm breath he puffed out was nicely tickling me. "It's because you're so wonderful. You're wet and tight and your sweating body under me makes my mind go completely blank."

"Oompf, not the kind of compliment I'd like to share with the others."

"It's for your ears only, m'lady."

He sat up while saying that and grabbed one of the pelts to wipe his thick juices off me.

"I hope you won't share all the details of our 'mating' with your scaly friend," I mocked him while he tossed the pelt away.

"Discrete is my middle name," he said while placing a little kiss next to my now clean navel.

"Actually, 'horrendous' is your middle name", I begged to differ.

"Don't even remind me of that, I hate my awkward names... except when you scream them."

The cocky grin was once again back on his face.

"Eh, be a more mediocre lover and I'll stop making any noises, I promise."

"Hey, you only deserve the best," he teased me while lying back next to me, bringing me to his hugging arms.

"This conversation is getting worse and worse, I suggest sleeping," I said kissing his nose.

"Good call. We should wake up early to do some mapping."

"By 'mapping' you mean actual mapping or having mind blowing morning sex?" I asked innocently.

"Sadly, I think we should do some work. If we go back with empty hands, I think your father would kill me without asking any questions."

"I think he would ask you to sharpen his ax before he chops you up into little pieces."

"Nice prospects..."

"So mapping it is."

"Mapping it is."

That was the last sentence that left his lips, a second later he was fast asleep in my arms.

§§§

After a couple hours of deep sleep, I woke up during the night middle of the night, because I wasn't used to sharing my bed with someone else. To my surprise, we were spooning. He was pressing tightly to my back with a heavy arm lying across my waist. I could feel his delicate little puffs on the back of my neck, and it curled my lips when I realized how sweet all this was.

However, I also realized that I got a little numb in that position and I started to wiggle a little to get into a more comfortable one.

"Hey, if you keep rubbing your butt to me, there's going to be consequences..." said a sleepy voice to the nape of my neck.

"I'll take my chances. You're holding me a little too tight," I complained trying to crawl away from the grip of his arm.

"Mff, too late, the damage is done."

I reached down to touch him and to my astonishment, even though he himself was still half-asleep, his member seemed to be wide awake, hard and strong, waiting me.

"It seems pretty okay to me," I said while I started to fondle it. He bucked into my grip with a loud grunt. I continued with my handy work while he finally lifted his arm from my waist and a minute later he placed it on my nipple to rub it lazily. His fingertips felt wet, so I assumed he licked his fingers before placing it on the overly sensitive little spot. It was my turn to moan now.

I stuck my bum out a little, so the tip of his shaft was right at my entrance. He must have felt that once again I was soaking wet down there.

His fingers left my nipples and they were down on my bottom now, moving it into a position which made easier access for him.

"You're one evil vixen, Astrid Hofferson," ha whispered into my ear while pushing inside me.

"Mmm," that was all I could say as I was enjoying myself a little too much as his member filled me out, stretching my tight walls.

His movements quickly became faster and he pressed a sweaty forehead to the back of my neck.

"Gods," I grunted while lifting my leg a little so he could slip into me even deeper. He placed his fingers between my folds and started rubbing my little magic bump. I had no objections at all this time.

"I seriously can't believe how great this feels," he mumbled placing a sloppy kiss on my shoulder, gently sucking my skin, while thrusting into me.

"We should have been doing this long ago," I agreed, and I reached behind my back to grab his butt, trying to pull him even closer to me which was at this point, sadly, impossible.

"We have to make up for the lost time..."

"Oh, Gods, I'm so... I'm sooo..." I wanted to say 'close' but I couldn't even finish my sentence.

"Babe, this is argh... ah... ahh... oh..." I felt the flood of warmness inside me for the first time ever while we were simultaneously coming. This was a whole new level and the closest we will ever be able to get to each other in this life.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled into my ear.

"For what now?" I asked back, sounding a bit bitter, but I felt he kind of ruined my 'after fun' with his stupidly thoughtful attitude. "Stop apologizing for having really, really great sex with me."

"But I didn't have enough self-control to... pull out."

"It's okay, that's why I'm drinking that awful herb brew day and night."

"I know, but what if it doesn't work?" he asked with a concerned tone, his fingers lightly caressing my side.

"It will," I said sternly. "Now go back to sleep before I won't sleep with you ever again. Your whining is a massive turn off."

"Okay."

"Sleep."

"Astrid?"

"What now?"

"I love you."

"Sleep."

Five seconds later his breaths started to become deeper and more even.

Truth be told, I was a little concerned too, but I decided that it won't ruin our very first night together, so I snuggled closer to him and fell asleep with a smile.


	7. Memories II - Freckles (Part One)

I woke up to the very first kisses of the sun which painted the inside of our tent orange as it came through the little window holes on its sides. I blinked for a couple of seconds not really understanding where I was at first, but the sounds of the delicate puffs coming above my head and the warm body under it recalled all memories of the previous night. There we were, two recklessly non-traditional Vikings in our little hideout, tangled in each other's limbs...

I raised my head and I took the liberty to find comfort and joy in looking at the calm expression of a face that always melted my heart. I studied the features; I took note of the the swarm of copper freckles and the normally pale complexion that was now painted golden by the beams of the morning sun.

I looked at the long lashes, the smooth brows, the longish nose and the thin lips. I leaned closer to fill my nose with his odor – I've only recently discovered that I found his smell irresistibly intoxicating.

I placed a small, quiet kiss on the corner of his mouth. He raised his hand to scratch it, but I was absolutely sure, that he was still far away in dreamland. But it was an adorable little move that made me giggle. At this point I felt wide awake and also started to feel a little restless so instead of waking him up I decided on entertaining myself with checking out the rest of him.

My vision fell on his broad shoulders then on his chest that served as my pillow for most part of the night. I looked at the silky auburn hair that covered it, the dark circles of his nipples, the flat and toned stomach with the little sensitive navel in the middle and... the rest was covered with the pelts.

I hesitated for a second then I carefully lifted the one that was right on top of him, peeking under it. Yes, he definitely had a thing called the 'morning problem' and from what I've learned from the blabbermouths of the village, his was certainly bigger than the average. I licked my lips and gulped - my animalistic reaction almost frightened me, but luckily I knew a very good solution to such problems...

I crawled under the covers and kissed the tip of him. I waited a little but there was no reaction. I bit my lips before sticking my tongue out to lick it. There was some movement under me, but he became still soon, so I figured he was still asleep.

I opened my mouth and slowly started swallowing it and I welcomed the slightly uncomfortable, but still very exciting feeling of his thick and long member filling out my throat. Then I slowly raised my head half inch by half inch to the point where only the tip was in my mouth and I curled my tongue around it.

I heard a little, muffled moan from above so I enthusiastically continued with my operations, sucking and licking all the way up and down. Another deep groan left his lips and I felt that his hands started to move under the pelts searching for my head to bury long fingers in the sea of my messy curls, massaging my scalp and politely indicating the right rhythm.

I wanted to smile upon hearing the further sounds of his pleasure, but of course I couldn't, so I just continued with my ups and downs, remembering the first time I made Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III fill my mouth with his love nectar.

§§§

It was one of those rare, lazy sunny days on Berk when we had absolutely nothing to do.

There was no training, there were no mishaps or troubles, not even a burnt down building that required repairs.

With nothing better to do, me and Ruffnut decided on visiting a place called _the Caves_. It was on the Northern part of the island and it was an enigmatic thing before dragon riding came into the picture, as it was too hard to reach it through the thick forests - but on the back of our flying friends, it only took some twenty minutes to get there from the village.

The mouth of the Caves was at a rocky cliff, but luckily, the rocks were big and smooth and were quickly warmed up by the sun. They made a pleasant place for hanging out when we had nothing better to do.

The Caves itself was a collection of tunnels and caverns, with a cold waterfall in one and a steaming warm natural pool in another other. It was the prefect place to do your laundry and to take a bath or a shower. Luckily, most of the time it was quiet and empty as the inhabitants of the island thought that clean bodies and fresh clothes were simply overrated.

We were already done with our laundry and the bathing, so we sat down on the warm rocks outside to get a little tan, as our faces were still ghostly pale after the lengthy winter and the chilly spring.

We were only wearing our underclothes, light linen shorts and a matching tunics, but as I've said before, it was highly unlikely that any of the our fellow Vikings would consider spending their day-off at the little natural spa.

By that time my relationship with Ruffnut was pretty close. Whenever her brother wasn't around she started to show signs of normal behavior which was surprising at first, but also refreshing, and I have to admit that our conversations felt more and more pleasant.

Or... there were promising signs before, but during the past winter out of sheer boredom, she started to pay more attention to the amorous, but clumsy courting of both Fishlegs and Snotlout. She enjoyed being the center of attention and the competing guys surely served as a huge confidence boost for my lanky girlfriend.

But then she started to share the stories of their awkward little "adventures". At first, they were quite entertaining, because they involved a lot of random accidents and intended pain, but then came the time when her attention shifted from humiliating her knights in shining dragon saliva to explore sexuality with them. For granted, it also involved some humiliation, but she was more and more focused on learning how things worked in the bedroom. Or in the woods. Or wherever.

I tried not to listen to her enthusiastic tales, because all of her stories had either 'Legs or 'Lout in them, but a little part of my brain started to become curious, because truth be told, she quickly became more experienced than me.

But as of now, we were just quietly sitting next to each other, leaning on our stretched arms behind our backs, with our stomachs exposed, enjoying the sun, the view and the dull noises of the waterfall inside the Caves.

"Does he have freckles on it?" Her harsh voice suddenly woke me up from my daydreaming.

"Does who have what on where?"

"Hiccup, who else? Does he have freckles on _it_?" I gave her a puzzled look. She had a tendency to ask random questions, out of the blue, but usually they made at least _some_ sense - this one however didn't. He had freckles, everybody who had met him knew that.

"Oh, don't you dare to give me that Vestal Virgin look, you know what I'm talking about."

I shook my head.

"Aaastrid, seriously? Like 99 percent of the time you're smarter than me but when it comes to the remaining 1 percent, I seriously cannot decide whether you're dumber or just playing dumber. I meant on his _dick_."

"Oh," that was all I could say.

"So?"

I knew she wouldn't let it go, she was as stubborn as all of us, especially when she was really curious about something. Just my luck.

"I don't know?" I answered, but it sounded more like a question. And actually it was true - even though I had the chance to hold the _thing_ she was so eager to learn more about in my very own hands, but I was much more familiar with its touch than its look.

It's not like I'm staring at it when I... Never mind.

"Liar!" She shouted suddenly and pushed my shoulder. Lucky for her, I didn't loose my balance. "Don't you dare to say that you haven't seen it up close and personal."

I didn't say a word just looked away. It was really none of her business what I did with him behind closed doors.

"You know, your body language gives you away," she said trying to outsmart me while laughing in my face when I looked back at her. I rolled my eyes.

"Ruff, you're impossible."

"Nah, I'm just observant. And I'd like to learn more about my friends."

"You're mistaken. You can be friends with people _without_ knowing anything about their privates."

"Yeah, but that would be boring."

She was quiet for a second and I started to hope that she was willing to drop the subject. I was very wrong.

"Okay, since you decided on withholding the information, let me talk about my encounters with penises."

I twitched. "Did you really need to use that word?"

"Why? It's a nice word. I like the sound of it. Penis, penis, penis..." It was my time to push her hard and I made her fall back on her back. It didn't really help, because for some reason she found the p-word hilariously funny, and she kept on repeating it while hysterically laughing like a 5-year-old.

"Ruffnut, you're such a baby," I said trying to sound angry, but the sight of her rolling with laughter on the rocks was quite amusing.

She finally stopped and collected herself, sitting back up.

"Okay, okay. So whose do you think is bigger? Snot's or Fish's?" In order to stop my next angry retort, she raised her forefinger, moving it quickly from one side to the other. "A-a, you either answer this questions, or you give a detailed description of your boyfriend's dick."

"Splendid," I answered unwillingly. "Fishlegs'."

"And that's what I though too, but surprisingly, the correct answer is Snotlout's."

I was seriously considering wiping the proud smile from her face with my ax...

"Okay, great, Ruffnut. Are we done?"

"Not quite. I kind of enjoying torturing you. Well, you too."

"You know, I could just stand up and leave you here? Don't forget, it was my dragon who brought us here."

"Nah, you wouldn't do that. On foot, it would be a five-hour journey back to the village through the forest."

"Do you think I'd care?"

"Yes, you would, 'cause I'm your one and only girlfriend." She quickly scooted closer to me, throwing her arms around my shoulders in order to hug me, but I grabbed her wrist and twisted it behind her back, pushing her down until her nose touched her knee.

"O-o-o, I surrender, I surrender!" She screamed. I took pity on her and let go of her wrist.

"Don't you ever try to hug me again," I hissed between my teeth, but I didn't really mean it - most of the time I didn't mind her hugs, she was just a nuisance now with her stupid, profane questions.

"You know, sometimes it really surprises me that Hiccup is not a complete cripple yet," she said massaging her wrist with a painful expression.

"I'm not aggressive with him."

"You were."

"I was, but things have changed."

"You're in love."

I looked at her. We were heading towards something that I felt even more uncomfortable about than our previous subject.

"No, I'm not. I just... really like him," I said quietly.

"That's the same."

"I don't know." I didn't lie to her, I really had no idea where the boundary was between like and love.

"At least, you're in a better position than I'm," she said sounding just a tiny bit sad while laying down on her back, putting an arm under her head.

"Why would I be in a better position?" I asked curiously.

"Because you've already found that _special_ someone I'm still looking for. I like both Fishlegs and Snotlout, but I don't think I will ever love either of them."

"Yet you have first hand information on their sizes." My criticism made her giggle. She propped herself on an elbow, using her hand to shade the sunlight and be able to look at me.

"You are unbelievable. Every time I try to make an adult conversation, you find a way to make a joke out of it," she said mocking me and the pretended seriousness in her voice was almost confusing.

"Okay, Ruffnut, I don't know whether I'll ever love him or not, but..."

"You don't see yourself marrying him?" she asked sounding surprised.

"Marrying? What? Who said anything about getting married?"

"Well, it's a logical next step," she said still looking at me, trying to read my face.

"Logical next step in what?"

"In a relationship?"

"Ruff, I really hate when you are playing the smart girl. I honestly don't know what we have."

"You gotta be kidding me!" She sounded almost angry or at least annoyed, but I was telling her the truth again, we have never ever talked about our relationship, we were just enjoying each other's company without setting any rules, limits or boundaries.

"You know, Astrid, you don't have to put labels on things, but trust me, you behave like a couple and we all treat you like one."

I shrugged. I really didn't care what the other Vikings thought about me. Or us. But Ruffnut didn't give up that easy, she continued with her torturous analyzation.

"You hold hands."

"Sometimes. But not very often, though."

"You kiss each other."

"We..."

"Aaastrid! The whole island witnessed your first kiss."

"I was just happy he didn't die."

"I saw you kissing and hugging him the following Snoggletog."

"I felt sorry for him. Toothless was missing."

"We both know that's yak shit. We have lost Belch and Barf at least a thousand times and you've never pushed your tongue down my brother's throat."

"Okay, we kiss sometimes. Happy?"

"Yes. And believe me, I'm very well aware of it, thanks to you, idiots. As a matter of fact, two weeks ago I was eavesdropping your endless make-out session much against my will."

This came as a shock to me. I didn't have a clue what she was talking about...

"Two weeks ago? Meade Hall? Celebrating Fishlegs' b-day?"

"Oh," I groaned, now I knew what she was talking about...

"Next time, when you sneak out, sneak somewhere further. I felt sick and came out of the Hall to sit on the cold stairs and all I could hear was your squelching and moaning ."

"We were are at the side of the building in the shadows..."

"I figured. Seriously, I barfed at least twice while Hiccup kept saying how beautiful you were."

"I'm sorry about it, okay? Obviously, we didn't want anyone to hear that... And I'm sure it didn't sound like _squelching_."

Suddenly, I started to feel very uncomfortable, and I didn't know whether it was because of Ruffnut's embarrassing questions or the awkwardness that surrounded the whole situation.

Should I really discuss our relationship status with Hiccup? Or things will just magically unfold as we continue our journey together to the great unknown?

"So, anything else?" She asked again breaking the silence for the millionth time.

"What, Ruffnut? What else?"

"I heard him say you should go to the forge, because it's empty."

"Maybe we wanted some privacy?"

"Gods, I hope he didn't fuck you on the table. For Thor's sake, that's where our weapons are made!" She was obviously enjoying the little mind game she was playing with me, but I decided that a Ruffnut Thorston is not enough to intimidate me.

"For your information, we don't _fuck_. Neither in the forge, nor anywhere else."

"That's lame. I mean, I don't fuck either, but then again I'd like to keep my options open. And that's kind of an irreversible process. Yet, you on the other hand..."

"How is my any case different? You've just said it was an irreversible process."

"Yeah, but you wouldn't want to fuck anyone else but Hiccup."

"Stop saying that," I begged her quietly. The thought of doing such _vulgar_ thing with someone who was so precious to my heart felt like an unforgivable sin. At least, back then. She looked at me and rolled her eyes.

"Okay, let me rephrase it: you wouldn't want to _make love_ to anyone else but Hiccup. Better?"

"Slightly," I nodded quietly, but this whole conversation started to freak me out. Ruffnut had a very valid point, we weren't kids anymore and these things were supposed to happen sooner or later... Hiccup, of course, never even hinted at it, but lately we went second base every time we had the chance...

Ever since I had the guts to ask him to let me please him with my hand, he became braver and ever so often, he gently grabbed my hand and placed it on his hardness, when it seemed like the "appropriate" thing to do. And honestly, both of us took great pleasure in my diligent handy work - not to mention the things he could do with his fingers when he had the chance to touch me.

"Okay, so you two, ladies, don't make love."

I didn't reply anything to her sassy "ladies" comment, I just simply shook my head. "Nope."

"But you definitely do other things..."

I decided to give in. I knew there was no way I could talk myself out of this conversation.

"We do," I said with burning ears, "Hand..._ stuff_."

"Hand stuff?" She started to laugh again, so harshly that it almost felt rude. "My sto-mach hurts!" She complained while pressing her two palms to her abdomen.

"You know, it doesn't have to sound dirty."

"You goody two-shoes!" She shouted, still laughing her ass off. A couple of seconds later she calmed down and apologized. "Sorry. It's just... never mind. So?"

"So?"

"So did you make his_ dragon spit_?" She lost it again and the hysterical laughter was back. It was really hard not to slap her, but she was in a relatively safe distance, away from my revengeful palm.

"Yes, I did," I admitted finally.

"Good girl!"

"I'm not sure if it's considered to be a _good girl_ quality."

"Well, if you made him happy – which I'm sure you did – then it's a good deed."

"Whatever."

"I hope you don't think it's something you should feel ashamed about."

"No, I'm not. But I also consider it to be a very private thing."

"I made Snot cry the first time I did it for him... And oh, Fishlegs made the funniest noise; he sounded like a trapped squirrel, eek-eek-eek."

"Gods, Ruffnut, that's too much information."

"Sorry, I was just trying to make a point."

"What point? That I'm dating one guy and you're dating two?"

"Hah! Busted, you used the word _dating_," she said triumphantly.

"For the lack of a better expression..."

"So, the big question is: what do you enjoy most about it?"

"What kind of a question is that again? I don't know... I like him and it makes him happy and I enjoy it too and... it's a private thing... Ruff, I really don't know what more could I say. It's complex."

"Aha!" She raised her forefinger and pointed at me. "The only thing, dear Astrid, I enjoy about it is that I have _control_ over them."

"Because you're just playing."

"So you admit that you're not."

"No, I'm not, but I've already told you that I like him."

"Okay. _Hand stuff_ checked. Anything else?"

"Like what?" By the time the question left my mouth, I had already known this was a bad idea. Ruffnut immediately curled her fingers and raised her hand to her mouth. She started to shake it up and down in synch with her tongue that she pushed to the inside of her cheeks, imitating a thing that I've never even dared to think about it up until now. I quickly grabbed a little pebble that was next to my hand and threw at her. It didn't hit her.

"Hey, back off, baby! I'm only trying to help."

"Trust me, your dirty ideas are not helping at all."

"I can sense your fear."

"I'm not afraid of..."

"Yeah, Astrid Hofferson bravely faces the brawniest Outcast or the fiercest dragon giant, but she's afraid to suck her man's _dick_."

"Ah!" A scream left my mouth. She was lucky I couldn't find any more throw-able objects near me. "I'm not afraid of it, okay? I just... don't know how to do it." I admitted and I felt that my ears were on fire again.

"Then it's your lucky day, my darling, because Auntie Ruffnut will teach you how to do it."

"I didn't say I wanted to..." She never let me finish my sentence.

"Sss. Not another word, you're trying to play Miss Modest again, but I know that deep down you want to know it. You want to make his dreams _cum_ true." She started to laugh at her stupid pun, but I didn't react, because... there was some truth in it... Minus the very unnecessary dirty joke.

"He never said he was dreaming about it."

"Oh, please. First of all he is Hiccup and he'd never say anything like that to you, because he treats you like a flower. But trust me, even though he is annoyingly polite, he's also a 20-year-old man. Like it or not, he's imagining your innocent rosy lips around his shlong roughly 10 times every hour."

"Okay, you know what? Let's just get over with it," I said weakly.

"Astrid, say 'I want to learn how to please my man with my mouth.'"

"Is this really...?"

"Yes, it is."

"You're a pervert."

"Yeah, but I'm a useful one."

"Fine. I want to learn how to please my man with my mouth. Good enough?" I couldn't believe she made me say it out loud. When did this nincompoop become the master of manipulation?

"That's the spirit!" She exclaimed happily and crawled closer to me. At least she started to speak in a quieter tone.

"Okay, so, you've already figured out how to fondle him."

"Mhm."

"That's a good start. So do some pumping with your hands..." She was looking at me while she was talking and I hated that she so obviously enjoyed the beetroot color of my face.

"Then you have to lean closer to it. Like really close. Because you need to lick it."

"O-kay," I said and my voice shamefully cracked.

"Lick the tip a couple of times. That's a really sensitive part. Then after the tongue strokes, open up your mouth and start to swallow it." She demonstrated the whole process by putting three of her fingers into her mouth.

"That really wasn't necessary," I complained.

"Hey, I'm trying to be a good teacher here! Oh, one important thing: no teeth. Absolutely no. No, no, no."

"No teeth?"

"Yeah, trust me, it's very sensitive. I've learned it the hard way..." She again, demonstrated what she was talking about by punching her head. I didn't dare to ask which one of our friends were the lucky winner of Ruff's bite, but I vaguely remembered that Fishlegs was limping a little, right before his birthday...

"Okay. No teeth. Erm..."

"Oh, we have a question? Ask me anything, sweety." She sounded so uncomfortably enthusiastic.

"Erm... what if it's too _big_? I mean... I certainly don't want to choke on it..."

"Hah. Very good question, Miss Hofferson. Well, I don't have an _exact_ information of its size..."

"And you'll never have."

"... but if you do it really slowly, it shouldn't be a problem. It might feel odd at first, but try to take it down inch by inch. It's not a race."

"Mhm. Not a race."

"Now, about the rhythm and the tongue technique: I'm afraid you have to figure it out. It seems that they like different things and what works with one, doesn't work with the other. Snotlout for example..."

I raised my finger to stop her.

"Do not say another word about Snotlout. Or Fishlegs."

"Okay. So, at the end... well, you have two options: you either take it out of your mouth and finish it with your hand or..."

"Or?"

"You swallow it."

"Ugh. I mean... it's a _lot_," I said, remembering the time when Hiccup was so deeply buried in his pleasure trance that he forgot to use a rag and he emptied himself on my stomach.

"Ah, at least you have _some_ knowledge on the subject." I almost thanked her compliment. She really had some good teaching qualities, it was her choice of subject that was questionable.

"So, it's thick and... well, it has a funny salty-bitter taste. I cannot really compare it to anything. It's like drinking gone-off yak milk."

"Ugh."

"Yeah, if it tasted like mead, I'd really like to have one in my mouth right now."

"Ruffnut!"

"What? I'm just thirsty. Anyways, I don't think he would mind if you spat out some of it."

And my training ended here, when we suddenly heard some noise coming from under the cliff we were sitting on. I tried to sit up higher to see who our unwanted visitor was and when I heard a happy "Hello, ladies." coming from down under, I wished the Earth would open up and swallow me...


	8. Memories II - Freckles (Part Two)

He climbed up to the spot where we were sitting with a smile on his face. Me and Ruffnut couldn't say a word, we were just looking at him as if we had seen a ghost, so the grin on his face quickly turned into a frown.

It had to be him... of all people... and I couldn't even make myself say a 'Hi, Hiccup' to him...

Sensing our discomfort, he awkwardly dusted his hands and descended next to me.

"You alright?" He asked with a worried tone while gently placing his palm on the small of my back. None of us could say a word for at least another minute, then Ruffnut, the banshee, cracked up again and laughed so hard that tears were falling from her eyes.

I was mortified. Had he heard just one sentence from our not-so-brilliant conversation, I was doomed. I scooted away from him, not because I didn't like his touch, but everything felt awkward beyond belief.

"Ruffnut needs to see the healer," I groaned finally as if I was in pain.

"Yeah," confirmed Ruffnut, trying to stand up as if she was drunk, staggering and reeling, swallowing the tears of her pure joy. "As a matter of fact, I think it's time for me to go. I'm taking Stormfly."

"But how am I supposed to...?"

"Don't worry, sister, I'm sure this guy is nice enough to offer you a ride."

"Ye-ah," confirmed the confused Hiccup.

"Have fun!" Ruffnut winked at me before collecting her clothes and she quickly climbed off the rocks and disappeared in the lush shrubs. A minute later she was up in the air, riding my Nadder, waving to us with a huge grin on her face.

I didn't dare to look at Hiccup, in fact, I started to feel a little dizzy, not wanting to give him details about the conversation he accidentally interrupted. Instead, I decided to lie down on the warm rock, crossing my arms under my head, closing my eyes, waiting for the inevitable question.

"Erm... Astrid, what was that about?"

"Nothing," I said trying to sound just a little bit happier than I actually felt. He crawled closer to me, and slipped his finger under the hem of my tunic, stroking my stomach gently. I didn't even care that I wasn't wearing too much clothes and he could perfectly see and feel all my hidden curves.

"She just had all those stupid questions." I said finally, enjoying the ticklish sensation on my tummy.

"What stupid questions?" His fingers crawled further up leaving a trail of goosebumps on my skin.

"About our relationship." I gently grabbed his hand and pulled it out from under my tunic, not because I didn't like his touch, but I wanted to sit up and look into his eyes. When we were face to face, I stroked his hand, since I didn't want him to think that his closeness was uncomfortable for me.

He smiled at me. "Well, I hope you told her that I'm your boyfriend and she cannot include me in her little gang of suitors." He leaned closer to me and placed a soft kiss on my lips.

"Are you?" I asked when he sat back.

"Am I what? Your boyfriend?"

I nodded.

"I hope so." He let out a little proud giggle.

"It's just... we haven't even talked about it." I said looking the other way. But he didn't let me to escape this easy. His fingers were on my chin, turning my head back.

"Do we need to talk about it?" I couldn't answer him, I had a lump in my throat. Seeing my struggle, he continued. "I mean, it was kind of obvious for me that... I don't know... We're a couple?" At this point he started to sound unsure and quirked an eyebrow while examining my face, looking for a clue.

"And when did you start to think that we were a couple?"

He hesitated for a second as if looking for the right answer. "Don't know... the first time _I_ kissed you?"

"Gods, that was a million years ago." The way he emphasized the 'I' made me smile. It was definitely an achievement for him back then.

"Hey, just 3 and a half years ago. It was the best 4 minutes of my life." He placed a hand on my thigh and started to stroke it with his thumb.

"Please don't tell me you were counting the seconds." I pushed away his hand, but he immediately put it back on me.

"I was. It was a big thing for me," he said in a fake peeved tone.

"It was a big thing for me, too," I agreed and placed my hand on his arm, caressing him, enjoying the silky auburn hair's touch under my fingertips.

A cunning little smile appeared in the corner of his mouth and he leaned closer to me, putting his lips to my ear.

"Astrid Hofferson, would you do me the honors and be my girlfriend?"

I turned my head so our noses touched.

"Idiot," I whispered back, but a telltale grin on my face gave away my true feelings. We gently kissed each other. His tongue slipped into my mouth, tracing my teeth, caressing my own tongue.

"3 minutes and 39 seconds," he stated proudly when we parted.

"I didn't say 'yes' yet," I warned him.

"But who would be able to resist this much Viking rawness?" He asked the rhetorical questions trying to show off with raising his arms, flexing his muscles. It never ceased to amaze me that now he was strong and toned and he was nothing like his tiny old self. Not that I didn't like that scrawny little boy he used to be, but well-defined and confident Hiccup was a whole new level of amazingness.

He once again leaned back to me and started to place little pecks on my mouth. "Pretty please," he said mocking me between two kisses.

"If I said yes, would you stop annoying me?"

"Mmm. Definitely."

"Then yes. Consider me your girlfriend." His kisses started to get more lustful and even though our little relationship arrangement made me way happier than it should have, my uncomfortable feelings crawled back, because I still didn't know if he had heard any part of our unvarnished conversation.

When his hands found their way under my tunic to my chest and he started rubbing my nipples, I pulled back.

"Why are you here, anyway?" I inquired.

"Oh. I came to take a bath." His hands slipped out. "And it was a good decision... I mean we didn't have the chance to hang out lately."

I cleared my throat. "Did you hear what we were talking about?" I asked him, carefully examining his face looking for the signs of embarrassment, but everything remained the same; there were no rosy cheeks and his voice wasn't trembling when he answered.

"Erm... Ruffnut said something about being thirsty?" My ears were burning with shame when I remembered the thing she wanted to have in her mouth, but it seemed that Hiccup didn't notice my struggle or he was nice enough not to take a note of it. Either way was fine with me.

"Okay," I said and moved away a bit. I started to play with the end of my braid, looking at it as it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"Erm... Care to join?" He tried to sound carefree, but we both knew if I had said 'yes' to that question, he would have been in a big trouble - he tried to play the easy going, manly man, but I knew he was a lot shier than that. At that point we weren't exactly brave enough to be completely exposed in front of each other...

"Nope. I already had one."

"Okay." He stood up and quickly disappeared in the cave. He must have felt that I was still tense and I felt sorry for him, since I hadn't given him any explanation. But at least now I had some alone time and a chance to think things over, except... the idea of him being completely naked only a couple of yards from me was quite distracting. I was fighting with a turmoil of feelings and I wished I was brave enough to enter the Caves.

Ruffnut and her stupid sex lessons...

I shook my head as if it would help, but it didn't. I felt horny, the fire of desire was burning in me, making my core ache and giving me the sweats. I just wanted to casually walk in and make his dreams come true. I wanted to hear his moans and grunts, his prayers to the Gods above. I wanted to make him tremble...

I stood up and walked to the mouth of the cave. I hesitated for a second, but then I decided on going for it. Now, I was officially his girlfriend and it felt natural to be as close to him as it was possible.

I passed the waterfall and headed for the cavern with the pool in it.

"Hiccup?" I said when I reached the entrance.

"In here." The walls echoed his voice.

"Erm... are you decent?" Boy, that sounded stupid, especially since I was planning on doing something very indecent... I heard him laugh.

"What counts as decent when it comes to your boyfriend?" His gap-toothed grin popped into my head.

"Undershorts?"

"Then it's safe to enter, m'lady."

I went in. I found him standing by the pool, drying his hair with a pelt in his hand. He did wear his shorts, but nothing else. The sight of his half-naked body covered with little water drops glistening in the dim light of the cave, made my jaw drop.

"It's not like you haven't seen every inch of my body," he mocked me and suddenly the previously imagined gap-toothed smile became reality.

"Hey..." I said and walked to him, stopping only when our chest touched. He must have felt my excitement; my nipples were rock hard and only a very thin piece of fabric separated us.

"You smell nice," I whispered into his ear while leaning closer to him. His own excitement was quite obvious for me...

He dropped the pelt from his hand when I kissed him. He placed his free hands on my butt, pulling me closer to him, grinding to me. I loved the sensation. I buried my hands in his wet hair and I knew that even if Ragnarök came, I would go through with my plans.

"How about we sit somewhere?" I suggested when we parted. I didn't wait for his answer, but took his hand and led him to a spot where a thick layer of moss covered the cold floor of the cavern. I made him lie down slowly and I crawled on top of him. He seemed a bit confused, but never protested. I started to pepper him with tiny kisses, earning the first little moans and sighs when I reached his neck.

His hands were back on my butt again. He was fondling me with determind fingers, which I really enjoyed, but I wanted to reach my goal, so I had to move down a bit. I kissed his clavicle, then then his chest. I reached his nipple and started to draw circles around it with my tongue and sucking on it gently. His hands were in my hair now, raking through my messy braids, tugging one of them a little when I bit him.

I continued my explorations with his firm stomach, savoring his skin, receiving another couple of moans in return, when I licked his navel. My tongue then started to follow the little hair trail leading from the navel to his most private parts, but I stopped when I reached the hem of his shorts.

I lifted my head to be able to look into his eyes. He looked back as if he was drugged, desperately trying to focus on me with foggy eyes. I was 100 per cent sure he knew what I was up to... I slipped my fingers under his shorts trying to pull them down...

"What ever happened to being decent?" He asked faintly while raising his hips to ease my efforts.

"It's a different situation," I answered while getting rid of his shorts.

"Mmm," he agreed, turning his head away from me, closing his eyes, taking a deep breath. I was back at his crotch again and I took a minute to simply marvel at his perfect member, stroking it with one finger, from tip to bottom, then back again. It seemed impossibly massive and I started to wonder whether it would fit into my mouth...

I laced my fingers around the impressive shaft and started to pump.

"Ah," I heard him say and it was really hard not to speed up things, but I remembered Ruffnut's words: this wasn't a race. I moved into a more comfortable position before starting the show, but I never stopped with my slow pumps.

Then I ducked my face down and I licked his tip. He twitched and groaned.

"Astrid, please, don't..." he grunted, but I didn't listen to him, instead I licked his shaft from top to bottom. "Goodness gracious..." I heard his muffled voice when I repeated it. I lifted my head a bit and noticed that pre-cum was oozing from him and I decided to have a taste of his juices. My tongue did a slow circle around his the tip, then I sucked on him an intsy wintsy bit. The taste was pretty much okay, it was a combination of salty and bitter, but the thought that it was coming from him made it sweeter than honey.

At this point he was panting hard, almost suffering from the pleasures I gave him and this was just the beginning... I opened my mouth wide open and slowly, very slowly I started to swallow him, trying not to touch his sensitive skin with my teeth as I was taught. I was really surprised that I could fit pretty much the whole thing into my mouth and the feeling of his hardness filling out my throat was maddening, not just for him, but for me as well.

I slowly started to go up again, trying to do some further tricks with my tongues when I had enough room to actually move it. Two hands landed on my hair, clumsily massaging my scalp, grabbing my braids when I started to descend again, this time slightly faster.

"Astrid, I really won't last long..." He said, but it didn't sound like a complaint, it was an encouragement, so I sped up a little still trying to be very careful with my teeth. At one point, he pulled my hair and it was almost painful and I knew he was only seconds away from spilling into my mouth...

He tried to push my head away, but I stubbornly continued my ups and downs until he finally exploded. He came really hard and the flood of his warm, thick seeds quickly filled my mouth, but I counted on it and diligently swallowed and swallowed and swallowed.

I managed to gulp down every drop and when I felt that he became softer between my lips, I gently let his member out of my mouth, placing a final little peck on the tip as if I was thanking him. I sat up and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand then I crawled next to him, placing my head on his shoulder. His eyes were still closed, but he put his hand in my hair again, stroking it with light moves.

"Am I dead?" He asked sounding as if he was under a spell.

"I don't think so," I giggled. He lifted my head with his fingers to be able to kiss me while his other hand was still playing with my hair. His kiss was tender and I melted into it. He turned a little to his side and his fingers found their way to my thighs, slipping between them pressing to my sex through the soaking wet fabric of my undergarments. He never stopped kissing me but the tenderness of his lips turned into pure desire and the rough strokes of his calloused fingers quickly flew me over the highest of heights.

§§§

The next morning we met at the Arena where we were supposed to have training. Hiccup couldn't take his eyes off me as if I was some kind of magnet to his metal and he made a very incoherent speech about the new saddles he had designed. Lucky for him, two of the boys weren't listening to him at all, because they were occupied with following Ruffnut's each and every move and the third boy was just simply ignorant.

Ruffnut, however, noticed everything and she seemed quite amused. When the completely unsuccessful lecture was over, she came to me, leaving his entourage behind.

"You may thank me," she said, patting my shoulder.

"Is it so obvious?" I asked back trying to play innocent, but I couldn't fool her.

"Hah, he was basically humping you with his eyes."

"At least you didn't use the F-word this time," I complemented her.

"I'm learning, too."

"Good. Well, thank you." It felt so ridiculous when I said that.

"Your pleasure is my pleasure," she said with a huge smirk on her face.

"Idiot."

"Well, have a great afternoon, girlfriend." She turned away from me and started to walk back to her admirers.

"Hey, Ruffnut!" I shouted after her.

"What?" She asked turning back to me, stepping a few steps closer when I hesitated before telling her what I really shouldn't have.

"No freckles."

Her laughter echoed in my head for a good couple of minutes.


	9. In-laws (Part One)

Ah. All great things come to an end and we, too, had to leave that magical place called the Itchy Armpit.

Yes, we did some mapping - among other things - and yes, upon my return, my father shared his concerns about me ending up in a shameful situation. I'm not proud of it, but I denied everything. And he believed me. It's just... Hiccup and I are in this amazing bubble and I don't want to burst it yet - even if it means that I have to lie to my own father.

But the thing is that my father likes Hiccup. He has never told it to me, but I know it, I've always known it. What's more, unlike most villagers, he has never hated or despised him. He has never ever talked about him in a condescending way. He respected him, because he was his chief's son and because of all the things Hiccup has achieved over the years. Yes, my father was the ultimate fan of my boyfriend. He approved our relationship long before I did. He often told me that I should be nicer to him when I wasn't, and when I kissed him after he defeated the giant beast, my father endlessly teased me about it.

Of course, apart from being the founder of 'Team Hiccup', he is also my father and he always warns me to be careful, as if... I'm nothing but careful.

But it my father or his feelings doesn't matter now. I have my own problems to deal with, because...

The day after we returned, we had a dragon race, which is the second best thing after... okay, you can guess. It was a tie between me and Hiccup with the poor black sheep ending up in the water. It was saved, but I'm sure it didn't enjoy the game as much as we did. We had a little celebratory drinking afterwards in the Meade Hall and Stoick seemed quite happy after the second pint of mead and hugged us both, telling the tribe that his son and his future daughter-in-law was the best dragon racers of all times.

_Wait, what?_ I looked at Hiccup while we were still being held tight by the enormous arms of his father and he just shrugged, making an awkward face. I didn't have the chance to ask him about the weird label his father put on me, because the night ended quickly and I kind of forgot about it when he said his goodbye, kissing me quickly behind a large wooden pillar in the Hall, smudging the race paint on my face.

The next day disaster happened. Hiccup turned up at our house only to tell me that he had to go on a diplomatic mission with his father. At least for four days. Maybe more. It was as unexpected for him as for myself, but he had no choice, and even though my dad was kind enough to leave the house and give us a chance to properly and privately say goodbye, I knew that the kisses Hiccup gave me wouldn't compensate me for not even one day, let alone for four, no matter how passionate and sensual they were.

I was okay for the first two days. I spent most of my time with Stormfly and at the Academy, making myself busy with whatever I could. I organized every parchment in Hiccup's office. I cleaned the pens. And later on, I even helped Gobber in the forge.

I did everything to forget that I was desperately missing our little bubble...

The third day was awful. I cleaned our house and when my mother lightheartedly joked that it would do good to the state of our house if Hiccup went away more often, I almost cursed at her.

On the fourth day I flew around the island with Stormfly and the cold wind calmed me down, but just a little. My heart was throbbing behind my rib cage every hour, every minute of the day.

And the fifth day? On the fifth day I felt, I was going to explode. So I flew away to the thickest forest with Stormfly to chop up some trees with my trustworthy ax. I have to admit, I was violent. I swung and threw my ax hour after hour, making the trees and my palm bleed. I ran through the shrubs, tearing off the leaves and in exchange, their spiky thorns tore up my clothes and my skin.

I was a mess. A dirty, stinky, worn-out mess. And it became late. I only noticed it, when I couldn't see anymore. It was time to go back to the village.

On the way, I realized that I was hungry. My stomach made loud grunts to remind me that I had forgotten to eat all day. I knew that my only chance to quiet the angry beast in my belly was if I went to the Meade Hall, hoping that there was some leftover food. It was far too late and I didn't want to wake up my parents, who were most likely sleeping by now.

Luckily, the whole village was silent when I got back, but truth be told, I was far too hungry to care about who just might see me in my completely grubby state.

Yes, it was ungraceful, but I couldn't care less. I was ravenous.

I opened the big door and in the dim light of the flickering candles I noticed that someone had left half a chicken on the table. I blessed the soul of my fellow tribesman who had lost his appetite and therefore, saved my life. I hurried to the chicken and I started to ravage it. I tore into its delicate flesh and I swallowed as fast as I could, not caring a least bit about the grease that stack to my face as a sticky, gooey mask. I sighed with pleasure. I even groaned. And then...

I heard a sound.

A sound of a pencil dropping on a book. I looked to my left with eyes wide open... And there he was... Hiccup, my Hiccup, sitting at the far end of the table with a book and a candle in front of him, looking at me with jaws dropped in disbelief. I tried to swallow all that was in my mouth, feeling how shame was painting my face crimson...

I didn't have time to say anything. He hopped up and with a few big steps, he was right in front of me, not saying a word, but pressing his lips on my grease soaked ones. I didn't have time to protest. I tried to push him away buy pressing two palms on his shoulders.

I was dumbfounded, I couldn't understand how he even dared to come close to my filthy self. But he was stronger. His hands were on my hips and he drew me closer and closer to him, never letting me doubt that he was very excited to see me...

I again tried to protest, but my mouth was full with his eager tongue. His hands let go of my hips and snaked up under my skirt, grabbing my leggings and my underwear, pulling them down to my knees with one swift move.

Since my mouth was freed for a second, I tried to say something, but nothing intelligible left my lips. But he was too busy, anyways, to listen to my complaints. His left hand swiped all things down from the table; the remains of the chicken and the tableware ended up on the floor with a loud clank.

And then his hands were back on my hips, lifting me up so quickly and easily as if I had weighted no more than a bunch of feathers. He grabbed at my boots, pulling them down with all the force he had and then he did the same with my leggings and my underwear.

I looked at him with eyes wide open, not quite understanding his mischievous and almost even outrageous behavior. But even if I was astonished, I was also impressed.

He stood on tiptoes and towered over me, pressing me on the table, leaning over me, kissing me again while he quickly undid his belt. I soon could feel his rock hard member shamelessly pressing to my warm center...

It was so uncomfortable yet exciting. I panted under him while his fingers slid between my folds to check whether I was ready to accept all he could offer... I was as ready as I ever could be.

He straightened himself before thrusting into me.

"Ah," I gasped when he filled me up. "Hiccup, this is... I'm so... you shouldn't..." I mumbled but he was busy pushing in and pulling out of me while treating me with a lopsided cheeky smile. He put his hands on my breasts and squeezed them gently. I grabbed the edge of the table.

He leaned back on me again while trying speeding up. "I missed you so much," he whispered to my ear and he started to suck and chew on my earlobe.

That was all too much for me. I arched my back and bit my lips. I almost screamed, but he pressed his palm on my mouth.

All this rawness, roughness and toughness quickly took me to the edge. I bit the skin of his palm hard when I came. I was wiggling, tossing and tumbling under him, clinging to the table for dear life...

When I started to calm down, it was his turn. I saw him bit his lip, too, squeezing his eyes tight. "Gods, Astrid," he groaned and pulled out of me the very last minute, emptying himself on the ground. "Gods, Gods, Gods..." he panted and lay on me. "I missed you so so much," he said while his sweaty nose touched mine.

"Wow..." I said still shaking a bit.

"Wow?"

"Wow, indeed." I said sounding way to content.

"Good." He quickly pressed his mouth on mine for a noisy kiss before standing up on shaky legs. "Erm, I think I need to clean this up..." He said looking down on the ground.

I propped myself on my elbows. "And I need to clean myself. Seriously, Hiccup, how could you have done that? I've never been this dirty in my life..."

"Yet, you look so hot that I'd seriously go for another round if it was physically possible at this point."

"Liar." I said with a laugh while he pulled his pants up and started to look for something to do the cleaning with.

"Don't challenge me, Hofferson," he said winking at me.

I got off from the table looking for my clothes and boots.

"I just don't like this cocky style. A damsel in distress comes into this sacred hall and you just... jump on her."

He shrugged while using a rag on the floor. "From what I've heard, I assumed the damsel had no problem with it."

I shook my head. He didn't know how happy it made me that he was confident now. It took us four years until we finally got to the point where he was able to dominate me and it was much to my liking.

"Nope, the damsel is pretty happy to see you, actually." I said with a huge smirk on my face. "But she is also a very dirty lady... So how about you help her get clean?"

"I'm open to any suggestions," he said looking at me while eating me up with his eyes.

"The Caves? I have a bar of soap and clean clothes in Stormfly's saddlebag." I offered.

"Say no more."

He kissed me one last time before he threw the dirty rag into the fireplace and we left the Hall, hand in hand, all excited.


	10. In-laws (Part Two)

We were tiredly sitting in the steaming pool, letting the water lick our chests. He rested his head on the edge of the pool, I rested mine on his shoulder. I was drawing circles on his abs, underwater, and I felt him smile into my hair. A hand grabbed my hand, lifted it and turned it palm up. There was a wide red line across it, caused by the rough handle of my ax.

"So what made you take revenge on the forest?" He asked, half-amused.

"I don't know... I was tense, I guess."

He let go of my hand and I felt fingers crawling up my thigh. "I can help you with that, you know." His husky voice gave me the chills. I tilted my head and looked into his eyes, they seemed a shade darker and radiated the purest lust.

"The main reason for all my tension is _you_," I said lightly, not wanting to give him the wrong impression, because I was not mad at him. His absence made me mad.

"Sorry about that. My dad is..."

"Oh, your dad!" The mention of Stoick suddenly rang a bell. "Why on Earth did he call me his _future daughter-in-law_?" His fingers tightened on my thigh.

"Trust me, you don't want to go down that road..." I could feel his growing awkwardness and it made me restless.

"Spit it out, Haddock."

"Well... he kind of knows about us..." He gestured with a wet hand at our naked bodies.

"What?!" I exclaimed.

"Yep... And Gobber too." I looked at him in disbelief. His face was red and it wasn't because of the warm water we were sitting in.

He took a deep sigh.

"The day we returned from the Itchy Armpit, I went to the Academy and Snotlout accidentally set one of the haystacks on fire. He tried to set it out, but instead, he managed to pour three buckets of water on me, so I ended up soaking wet and I figured, I might as well go home and dry my flight suit.

My father and Gobber were at our place, standing by the fireplace, drinking ale. I casually took a chair, placed in front of the flames and peeled my jacket and my undershirt off... Aaand this wasn't a very clever idea..."

He hesitated before continuing. "My father was just about to start one of his awkward pep talks about the duties of an aspiring chief, but then he suddenly stopped, mid-sentence... "

§§§

"Son, ye know how important it is fer a chief to be avail..."

"Oopsy-daisy..." I heard Gobber say, but I wasn't really paying attention to them at that point, I was just standing before the fireplace, backwards to them. All I wanted was to get a little warmer before going up to sleep.

"It must 'ave been one of them wild cats, Stoick... Panthers. Or lynxes...?" said Gobber, moments later sounding very unsure and deeply astonished.

"Non-sense, Gobber," I heard my father's stern voice, "we don't have anything like that on Berk."

"Could 'ave been the dragon then..."

"What are you talking about, guys?" I inquired, not understanding a word. The whole conversation sounded so absurd, like a silly guessing game. Oh, well, may be they had one too many drinks...

"No, Toothless wouldn't do anything like that."

"Dad, seriously, what are you talking about? It doesn't make any sense..."

Gobber stepped closer to check me out with curious eyes as if there was something unusual on me. Sure I was a bit wet, but the last time I checked, I didn't have a second head growing out of my shoulder, so I was still really confused about the whole situation.

"Well, I'm running out of ideas 'ere, unless it was..." Gobber stopped talking and looked into my dad's eyes. I was turning my head looking from one giant man to another, searching for clues.

"Then... this calls fer a celebration!" Shouted my father suddenly and rushed out from the room. I looked at Gobber with a concerned frown on my face.

"What-what is this about? What-what are we celebrating?" I asked, but he just shook his head and started pointing at me with a finger. My father arrived back with three tankards of ale his hand.

"There ye go, son, drink it up. Ye deserve it!" I accepted the ale he handed me. He gave one to Gobber too, and then he took a huge gulp from his, wiping the residue from his moustache with the back of his hand. I was just standing in front of him in total confusion. I didn't remember doing anything that was worth celebrating. Gobber was just standing, silently, fixing his beer as if he had nothing better to do.

"Dad?"

"Yes, son?"

"What are we celebrating again? I think I'm missing some important information here..."

My dad laughed at me happily. "Hey, it doesn't 'appen everyday that yer son becomes a _man_."

"Wait. What?" I looked at Gobber, but he was still looking into his tankard.

"A man!" Shouted my father proudly.

Gobber pointed at me again. This time it became obvious that he was pointing at my bare back... I tried to turn my head and... then it hit me. My back must have been covered with thin red lines, the scratches you gave me the night before, dear Astrid...

I collapsed on the chair, and buried my face in my hand. My father bent his knee and nudged me with an elbow. "Ye should be proud of it, son."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm nothing but proud," I groaned to my palm.

"Ye should be, I mean if she ploughed your back with her nails, then ye must 'ave done it the very right way."

"... or the very wrong," mumbled Gobber.

I slapped my hands on my thigh. "Okay, I think I call it a night." And that was it. I collected my clothes and went back to my room, burning with shame.

§§§

When he finished the story, I was almost crying. Gods, I've never felt this embarrassed, this frustrated. My chief knew that we... _Nononono._

Hiccup shrugged. "Well, there's nothing we can do about it now."

I wanted to shout. To scream. _Nononono._

"Did he say anything else?" I asked quietly, desperately trying to calm myself down. There was really no use in crying over spilt milk, but still, the shame remained...

"Yeah, he came up to my room when Gobber left, and told me that we have to leave the next morning, etc. Best night of my life."

"But what about me?" I couldn't believe the Stoick just let go of the subject that easily.

"What about you?"

"Did he say anything about me?" From what Hiccup told me, I understood that his father wasn't against us being together, yet... I knew there was more to this story.

Hiccup hesitated again. His eyes lingered at my face making me feel even more uncomfortable as if it was even possible at that point.

"Hiccup..."

"He told me that he hoped we would get married."

"And?!"

"What and? I told him I hoped it too."

I don't know why, but this infuriated me more than it should have.

"Nononono. I'm not... I'm not ready to..." I protested scooting away from him.

"Astrid, we don't have to get married right now. Or anytime soon, it's just..."

"He called me his 'future daughter-in-law' in front of the village and..."

"I know," he said calmly, reaching out for me, pulling me closer. "I know." He cupped my face and started to kiss me gently. Somehow, I wasn't in the mood...

"Well, I think I'll finish cleaning up at the waterfall," I said standing up crawling out from the pool. I grabbed my soap that lay on the floor, leaving him behind.

I walked to the waterfall and stood under it, enjoying how the cold water cooled my hot skin. I was burning with anger even though I didn't want to end our conversation or our night on bad terms...

A couple minutes later, I heard the familiar click of his prosthetic hitting the floor of the Caves. I actually felt relieved that he came after me. I didn't mean to hurt him at all, it was just all too much... Or I was way too tired.

He stopped a few steps behind me. I turned my head over my shoulder to look at him, and he was just silently looking at me. He bit his lip and I was sure, he took great pleasure in the sight of my naked body.

I continued soaping myself, but then his quiet ogling gave me an idea... I turned to face him and for a minute I was just looking at him, breathing heavily near the cold water. Then I started to soap up my breasts, lot slower than I would normally do it. He gulped. A thick, white foam started to form under my fingers while the cold water left me with goosebumps and pebbled nipples.

He hesitated. I knew he wanted to come closer to me, but he didn't want to break the spell. I moved a hand down on my flat stomach and I enjoyed how his gaze was burning my flesh...

It's not that I haven't touched myself before... I have done, quite a few times, it was just... I never had an audience before and everything felt so much better when he did the things to me. But touching myself, while he was watching, was a whole new level of excitement. I slipped my hand further down, until my fingers reached my golden curls and I started raking them very, very slowly...

He took a few shy steps towards me and I saw he was trembling. I smiled at him and placed my fingers between my folds, starting to draw the slow circles on my clit that I enjoyed so much. His eyes rolled back in his head. I moaned when I felt how wet I became... His eyes were still fixed on me and I saw him lace his fingers around his shaft, slowly starting to pump his rock hardness.

I let out a deep, guttural moan when I dipped a finger inside me. He couldn't bare it any longer and started to move closer to me. He only stopped when the tip of his member brushed my sex...

"Do you often do that?" I felt his warm whisper on my lips.

"What?"

"Touch... yourself."

I shook my head while slowly adding another finger. "Just... when...my... boyfriend... isn't... available." I panted. He leaned a little closer to me, grazing my cheek with his nose.

"How... about... you? Do... you... often... touch... yourself?" I mumbled through a series of pants.

"I used to." His fingers brushed mine while he continued with his pumps. He gulped one. "There's this girl in my dragon training class... I really... there are days when all I can see is how her hips sway when she walks and how her breasts bounce when she..."

He started to push me gently towards the wall of the cave. It was only a few steps behind me and when my back touched the cold, slimy walls, he placed his hungry mouth on mine.

"I'm... sorry... Astrid," he whispered when we parted, his fingers gently taking away my hand that was still between my legs.

"It's okay. I-am not mad..." He bent his knees a little and put his hand under the crook of my knee, lifting my leg up as he straightened himself. The rough walls of the cave scratched my back, but I didn't mind it at all. I gently embraced him with my leg, pulling him as close as I could, tilting my hip so he could enter me...

And he did. As slowly, as possible, millimeter by millimeter, holding my hips firmly. I placed my arms on his shoulder, crossing them behind his neck. He finished with his way in and then started to pull out, in the same maddeningly slow manner. I felt dizzy. I felt that my walls were clenching around him, leaving him in the same ecstatic state as I was in.

"It... never felt... this good," he whispered while sweat and cold water was dripping from his forehead.

"Mmm," I agreed before I caught his lips with mine. He thrust his tongue into my mouth and his member back into me with a lot more force than before. I felt that although we had just started the I whole thing, I was already quite close to the blissful end. He speared me again and my scream was echoed by the walls of the cavern.

"Look at me, please," he asked kindly "I want to see you come..."

I nodded and closed my eyes for a moment before looking back. Another thrust came and I trembled and clenched around him again.

"Hiccup..."

"Mmm?"

"Please... don't pull out... when..." I panted. The end was really really close.

"But..."

"Just... please." It was really hard to talk, but I wanted him inside me as long as it was possible... "Pleeease..."

He buried his face in my neck, gasping for air as if he was drowning. With a last loud 'ah' I started to shiver in his hands while my orgasm started to take over and when I felt him filling me up with his hot juices, I couldn't help but cried out his name...

We collapsed on the floor, panting, smiling, feeling overjoyed.

"This was amazing," I said happily hugging him tightly. He placed a light kiss on my chin. But then a serious expression crept on his face.

"About before..." he started and I immediately wanted to protest, but he placed a finger on my lips. "I don't want to rush anything. Part of me wishes to wake up next to you every day, but I also know that we are not ready..."

"Yeah," I said sadly.

"Hey, don't, stop doing that! We should be happy. We have each other." He said poking my ribs. "And you'll tell me, whenever you are ready."

"I will," I said, and suddenly everything felt as complete and safe as never before.


	11. Shadows (Part One)

The blissful couple of weeks we spent with learning about ourselves, discovering our deepest wants and most delicate needs, exploring our lustful bodies and enjoying the calmness of our own private Valhalla, came to and abrupt end.

Everything became dark, unstable and frightening and every day we drifted farther away from the point where we could at least try to collect the shattered pieces of our previous, harmless lives.

2 weeks had passed since that evil mad man, Drago, came into our lives and even though Hiccup and Toothless managed to defeat him, his actions and his spirit turned our once lush greens into a barren desolation.

At first, Hiccup seemed alright. It seemed that he accepted his father's death and the sudden turn up of a long-lost mother. It seemed that he accepted that he had to be the chief, even if it was much against his will. He did what he had to do: he honored the last unspoken will of his mighty father with a graceful dignity, but the burdens he had to carry now were just too much and I knew it all too well.

His soul was damaged and a distance grew between us.

I couldn't do much. Naturally, I took over managing the Academy, which was, of course, was much appreciated, but I knew his heart ached for the daily training sessions and flights. This new and unwanted position prevented him from doing all the things he liked in his life; he was forced to deal with people instead of dragons.

His mother, Valka, was there to help both of us, but even if I had learnt valuable things from her, our relationship wasn't the best. I simply couldn't like her for the choices that she had made and cruel as it may sound, sometimes I wished that she was the one who had been shot...

I had no doubt that the very same thought dwelled in my beloved Viking's mind...

Valka tried everything to improve their relationship. Sometimes she spent the night with his son, but the there was this constant awkward vibe between the two of them that made most of their conversations sound fake.

As for us, we were miles away from each other - not physically, of course - but he became more and more tired and distracted each day and all I could do is to check on him every night, bring him food that was usually left untouched and try to comfort him with timid little hugs before ordering him to go to bed.

My heart broke every day when I saw the growing blackness around his eyes and the wrinkles on his forehead.

Two weeks after his father's tragic death, he was just a faint memory of what he had been before, a frightened ghost in a broken human shell.

One morning he went past me and he didn't even notice that I was there... My heart sunk again, but I had to go to the Academy, so I decided to speak with him that night, because the once impossible thought of losing him suddenly started to feel very real.

But... Things didn't go as I had planned. At midday, Gobber sent his new apprentice, young Gustaf for me, because Hiccup simply fainted in the Meade Hall while he was trying to discuss building the new sheds for our livestock.

I rushed to the Haddock house as he was already taken there and found him sitting at the big table with his face buried in his palms. Gobber, who was with him, stood by his side and quietly left the house when I entered.

"Hi," I said gently, bringing a chair next to his. I sat down and opened my arms to welcome him in a hug and when he pressed his face to my neck, I felt that it was wet with tears.

"I'm sorry..." His voice was faint and muffled and he was trembling in my arms while I lightly started to caress his back. "I'm a failure..."

I pushed him away a little to be able to look into his eyes; they were almost completely black with no sign of the emerald fire that was usually burning in them.

"You're just tired. Exhausted. Worn-out," I said tenderly, brushing away the far too long bangs from his forehead.

"A chief cannot be..." Once again, he started to parrot the things he had heard from his father, but I cut him off.

"No, a chief is human, too. Your body and your soul are fighting against all that heavy weight you're putting on them."

He leant back to my neck, sobbing into my ear. I tried to hold him as close as it was possible. I knew that this time I had to be the stronger. When he quieted, I tilted my head and placed a small kiss on his mouth, with my lips barely brushing his.

"I'll get you some food and make you a bath. And then I'll wait by your bed until you fall asleep," I said firmly and luckily, he understood that there was no point in protesting.

I left him at the table and went to the kitchen. I found all the food that I had left there the previous night untouched. I lit the fire under the pot of leek soup and I cut the bread. I put the food in front of him and he slowly and unwillingly started to eat.

I went out and found his poor dragon on the rooftop of the house. Toothless jumped down as soon as he noticed me and I hugged and caressed him, whispering into his ear that neither of us should feel neglected, his master is just in a dark place now and desperately needed our help. It seemed that the clever little creature understood me and he helped me bring water to fill up the giant bathtub in the house. He even lit the fire underneath it to warm the water up.

He went to Hiccup then, who had already finished eating and when I saw them hugging, my heart felt lighter. I collected some clean clothes and looked for a lavender soap and then went back to him to tell him his bath was ready.

"Toothless," I started quietly, rubbing him behind his ear, "I need you to let go of Hiccup, he needs to take a bath."

"I'm sorry, bud, Astrid is right, I need to clean myself and sleep a little. Then we can go for a ride. How about that?" He offered while standing up and at least there a little smile appeared in the corner of his mouth when he said that.

I patted the dragon again. "Go, find Stormfly, I'm sure she'd love to play with you."

Well, Toothless wasn't too eager to leave, but he went out anyways, taking a last look at his best friend from the door. "Thank you, bud," said Hiccup and he turned to head for the bathroom while I started to pack away the things from the table.

"Astrid?"

"Hmm?"

"Could you help me with the bath?" He was standing a few steps from me. I looked at him and I saw despair in his eyes – I knew he felt ashamed because of the help he needed. I nodded with a smile to make him feel better and I went to grab his hand, leading him to the bathroom.

He undressed himself and I was shocked when I saw his naked body, it seemed he had lost a lot of weight in the past couple of weeks. I folded his dirty clothes while he took off his prosthetic and then I helped him crawl into the tub. He seemed relieved once the warm water had covered his weak body. I grabbed the soap and went to him. I started to gently scrub him, his chest, his arms, his hands. I looked at his long, foam covered fingers in my hand, but he lifted them to reach my neck and bring me down to his lips to a chaste little kiss.

"Thank you," he whispered while looking deep into my eyes. I put my hands back on his chest and started to soap him again. My fingers crawled to his firm stomach and he let out a sigh, but when I wanted to go even further down, he placed his hands on mine.

"Erm... Thank you, I can finish from here." He said it in a kind but determined way, with eyes closed, head resting on the edge of the tub.

I felt disappointed, it had never happened before that he stopped me while I tried to...

"Okay," I said trying to hide my frustration. "I'll go up and make your bed. Your clean clothes are here, on the chair."

I stood up and left him.

§§§

His room was a mess and before turning my attention to his bed, I collected the parchments from the floor at his desk and put them back on it. I gathered his dirty clothes and made a bundle of them. I changed the sheets and dusted the furs on his bed and I've just finished shaking up his pillows when he appeared in the doorway.

His hair was shaggy - well, shaggier than normally - and his wet body was glistening in the dim afternoon light. He only had a linen towel on, wrapped around his waist, covering him from hips to knees. I, again, sadly noted that he was much slimmer than the last time I had seen him naked.

"Your bed is ready, dear sir," I said tenderly gesturing towards the fresh pillows and pelts. He crawled under the covers and while he fumbled with the straps of his prosthetic, I lit a candle, placed it on his nightstand and I went to his window to close the shutters. There was hardly any light in his room, but he really needed some undisturbed sleep, so I went back to blow the candle.

"Astrid..." he started quietly before I had the chance to make his room completely dark. "Could you do me a favor?"

I nodded. I was standing next to him, but he didn't bother to touch me.

"Could you undress yourself?"

I looked at him, his face was expressionless, but his dark eyes were locked with mine. I hesitated for a second or two, then I grabbed the straps on my skirt, untied them and pulled the skirt off.

I stepped out of my boots, still holding his gaze, but when I took off my tunic, his eyes wandered down to my chest, watching me as I slowly unwrapped my bindings.

The light material fell on the floor. I was waiting for his next 'command', half-naked in the almost darkness, but he remained silent, so I hooked my thumbs into the hem of my leggings, pulling them down along with my undergarments.

I straightened myself, strangely not feeling weird about the fact that I was standing in the middle of his room all naked. His eyes traveled up and down on my body and without saying a word, he scooted towards the far edge of his bed, offering me a place to lie down.

I sat on the bed, next to him and he leant closer to me. Our faces were only inches apart. He lifted a hand and caressed my jawline lightly with a weak finger, then dropped his hand down on my shoulder, pulling me a little bit closer to him.

"I want to have you," he said with a barely audible whisper and I quietly lay to my back to let him know, without words, that I approved his cravings.

He leant down on me and kissed me, but only briefly. He placed his hands on my hips and pulled me in position to be able to crawl between my legs, with his knees pushing my thighs apart. He took off and tossed away the towel that covered him and pressed his burning member to my warm core. He licked my neck with a long stroke of his tongue and bit me, first gently then a little bit rougher.

Somehow I felt that this time I shouldn't be active or controlling; he was fueled with some kind of raw manpower that had never come to the surface before and I wanted him to have me as he wanted, so I just gently crossed my hands behind the small of his back, letting him to devour and take me.

His lips quickly were down on my nipple and he sucked it with a force that was almost painful while his fingers pinched and rubbed the other one before finding their way all the way down to my wet center.

The first moan left my mouth when he started to rub me down there with the same rough power. I arched my back and he rubbed me so fast that it literally took me only a couple of seconds to came with twisting and trembling hips and the muffled repetition of his name. I had to bite on his pillow to avoid screaming.

Not waiting until my post-orgasm agony was over, he firmly grabbed my hips and lifted me up a bit. With one fast and forceful move he was all inside me and this time I could not suppress the scream.

He leaned down and pressed his upper body to me while still holding my hips up tightly, kneeling between my thighs getting in and out of me with a speed that almost felt impossible. He started to came fast and hard while burying his sharp teeth into my collarbone, still doing his frantic ins and outs, filling me with his warm liquids, panting into my ear as he finally pulled out of me gently, letting back the lower half of my body to the bed.

Then he collapsed on top of me and sobbed into my neck, so I held him tight until his cry was replaced by his quiet snores. I placed a little kiss just under his closed eye, on his wet cheek, and my heart broke for the millionth time that day.

Somehow I managed to crawl out from under him and I covered him with the furs before silently dressing up and collecting the bundle of dirty clothes. I walked down the stairs and I heard a small, shy knock on the door.

It was Valka.

"Hi, Astrid," she greeted me while stepping inside and placing his large stick next to the door frame. "He is upstairs, sleeping," I started to explain quietly, "He got a little sick earlier..."

She looked at me as if she couldn't understand what I had just said. "He'll be alright. He just needs some rest." I assured her.

Valka didn't say a word and I started to feel uncomfortable about her presence, as always. "Well, I need to go, I have some laundry to do," I said holding up the bundle.

"Astrid..."

"Yes?"

"Thank you for taking care of him."

She sounded kind, but I knew the main point was that I took care of him when she didn't.

I nodded quickly and rushed out from the Haddock house.

§§§

I didn't meet him later that day or the following morning and I did the work at the Academy with a bitter taste in my mouth. It's not that I hated what had happened the other day, it was just... _different_. And not necessary the good kind of different.

The setting sun found me at home, all alone, so I occupied myself with folding the laundry. His laundry.

It felt weird, I shouldn't have been dealing with his dirty clothes, I wasn't his mother or his wife. And on top of that, I had other problems to deal with...

_It_ was late, not much, by four or five days only, but still... _it_ was late...

Then I heard a faint knock. I put down the clothes on the table and I went to the door. It was him, standing there, looking all embarrassed.

"Hi, Astrid..." He hesitated for a while before placing a small kiss on my cheek. "Can I come in?"

"Sure," I answered opening the door wide open. I went back to make myself busy with the laundry. At least I could give his clothes back to him...

"I think we should talk..." I hesitated. But then I nodded, not looking directly at him while trying to brush away invisible dust from one of his folded tunics.

He stepped closer to me and laced his fingers on my wrist to make me stop. I looked up into his eyes. It seemed that yesterday's sadness was still in them.

"Look, I know everything has changed and..." His voice sounded kind of standoffish and he had to stop to take a deep sigh before continuing. "I feel that our relationship has become a little bit one-sided. It is clearly obvious that I need you more than you need me and I feel extremely selfish. I feel that I can offer you nothing, but trouble and pain and... this last time, I think I have simply just _used_ you. I wanted to own you, I wanted you to obey me. And you did."

I didn't know what to answer to that. I understood what he was trying to explain me, but I didn't know whether he really meant it. I was confused and I had never thought that the darkness within him could grow that deep...

He stepped a little closer to me and cupped my face. His mouth was trembling and unborn tears were making his eyes shine.

"Astrid... you deserve better, I know you do. And even though I hate myself for saying this, but probably you should look for someone else. Someone who could make you happy and proud. Someone who deserves all this." He let go of my cheek and gestured to me, all of me. It felt as if I had a huge lump in my throat and it obstructed me from uttering all the words I wanted to say.

But it was his last ragged sentence that really hit me and almost destroyed my already wounded soul.

"I know that you... that I... that we... did _things_ and... I'm willing to give you a huge dowry when you find a husband in compensation for all the damage I had done."


	12. Lights (Part Two)

Dowry? Husband? Compensation? His final words echoed in my head for a long time, trying to drag me down to an abyss I didn't want to know. With a sigh, I took one last look at his tortured, confused expression - his hands were still cupping my face, thumbs trembling on my cheeks. I turned away from him thinking about how he always knew what to do, even in the most desperate situations, yet, when it came to us, he seemed clueless more often than didn't...

I started fiddling with the clothes in front of me again. Lucky for both of us, I was much better at handling our delicate situation. The more I thought about it, the clearer everything was, and I have to admit, that I have been constantly thinking about the best possible solution during our weeks of misery. I had time to think and it made much easier for me to make my decision...

"Truth be told, Hiccup, I've already found a husband." I said finally, fixing the clothes, averting his gaze.

He sniffed one and gulped hard. "You have?"

I looked at him and nodded. "Yes, I have. And I like him. He is strong. He is one of the bravest man I have ever known – and it's quite a compliment, since I only know Vikings. And he is also smart and caring, always thinking about others before himself."

I paused. The confused expression on his face was now replaced by something I can only call 'broken'. Sweetest Freya and Mighty Thor... I had to put an end to his sufferings.

"He makes my heart beat twice as fast..."

A silent teardrop slid down his cheek. I shook my head.

"He has all these god-like qualities, but since he is human, he can be puzzled. Baffled. Bewildered. Frightened. He can fail and err, he can make mistakes and he has all the right to feel miserable when life takes a bad turn." While I was talking, I slowly stood up on tiptoes and laced my arms around his neck. "But I've learnt that I love him no matter what, even in his weakest, darkest moments. Even when he is a little less attentive and passionate with me."

I flashed a tiny smile, barely even visible, then I gently pressed my lips on his, trying to pour all the love I felt into one kiss. It took him a moment to react. His mouth trembled under mine and our silently falling tears mixed on our cheeks.

When we parted, he pressed his forehead to mine. "I don't get it," he whispered with gentle puffs of warm air that made me shiver. I lifted my head and placed a kiss on his forehead. "Because you're dumb sometimes." I said in a light tone almost sounding playful. I released his neck, stepped back and took hold of his hands.

"Listen, Hiccup, I really enjoyed what we had before, all our good, goofy and tender moments. The ways our bodies reacted to each other... We were in this amazing love bubble, doing our jobs and duties diligently, not really caring about anything else, but us."

"I loved and adored our every minute, but I've messed it up...Big time." He said with audible pain in his voice.

"We both know, it wasn't your fault," I objected., it was really unnecessary to take all the blame. After all, he didn't really have any control over the occurrences of the past weeks... Things just happened and sadly, apart from the sudden and ambivalent appearance of a long lost mother, none of these things were good and even Valka's presence was more than confusing for him. I hated to remind him of these things, but I had to continue with my speech.

"I don't think you've messed up anything. You tried to do everything in the right way, as always, but some burdens are just too heavy, even for the strongest." I waited for a while before I started to talk of the thing that had become crystal clear in the past days, but... it was the hardest thing I've ever had to say. "Erm, remember when we were talking about marriage earlier and I freaked out?"

He nodded shyly without saying a word, so I continued.

"Yeah, I guess, I thought it to be a way too serious thing and... I wanted to live our innocent and commitment free life as long as possible. But in the past weeks, I realized something. I started to understand that a wife has to stand by her man even in the most desperate times. I started to acknowledge that a wife has to endure the hardships of her husband with dignity. I started to..."

He lifted his hands away from mine, placed them on my hips and pulled me into a tight hug. I pressed my chin on his shoulder and he placed his on the top of my head.

"There are no ways to tell you how sorry I am," he whispered into my hair.

"You don't have to be sorry at all," I said lightly and I lifted my head up from his shoulder. "I finally realized what I wanted to do and where I was needed. And the only thing I felt, besides feeling sorry for you, was how much I wanted to be there for you through all the troubles... Erm, I mean officially."

I stepped a step back and looked straight into his eyes. He quirked a brow, not really understanding what I was hinting at, but finally, I was there. I was about to ask the question, the only one that mattered. I cleared my throat before I started to speak.

"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, will you do me the honor of becoming my husband?"

He seemed petrified for a moment. "Dear Gods, Astrid..." He brought his hands around to cradle my face and he pressed his lips tightly on mine. We kissed for what seemed an eternity, not parting even when my parents opened the door and came into the house. We just stood there, in an infinite embrace that no man had the right to break, not even my dad.

Unfortunately, but quite understandably, my father got bored with our little festival of emotions and he cleared his throat, making us part rather unwillingly. So we parted, but instead of greeting my father, I looked at Hiccup's tear smudged face and I saw the biggest, cutest gap-toothed smirk on it. Finally, I had a good reason to giggle.

"Can I take it as a yes?" I asked quietly but his 'yes' was loud and he couldn't resist the temptation and rudely ignoring my dad's presence, he pulled me in for another kiss.

"Okay. Chief, daughter, what's with this sudden turmoil of affection? I'm starting to feel that I'm missing a huge part of a story that's actually happening in my house..." My father's uncomfortableness was nothing but understandable, and finally, we were able to focus on him.

"Mr. Hofferson, we need to talk about something," started Hiccup, sounding as determined as one could ever be.

"I'm listening."

"I think, it's been quite clear for you for a long time that I'm very fond of your daughter. And... I-I..." He was holding my hand while talking to my father and even though he was his chief, Hiccup's palm was sweating and his nervous grip became tighter around my fingers with every passing minute.

"Yes, my chief?" At this point I noticed that my devilish father was just mocking my future husband. He knew all too well what he wanted to ask, but he took pleasure in Hiccup's burning cheeks and embarrassment.

"I want to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage."

My father burst out laughing. "Is that all you want? Her hand? What shall I do with the rest of her?"

He let go of my hand and raked through his hair, as he always did when feeling awkward. "Very funny, Mr. Hofferson."

"Hah, I'm just kidding, Chief. Son. I was hoping for this, I just don't understand what took you so long." My father was undeniably in a good mood. He stepped closer to us and placed one hand on my shoulder and another on Hiccup's. From the corner of my eyes, I saw my mother peeking out from the kitchen with a kind smile on her face.

I felt that all was right with the world again.

"We just needed some time to understand that no matter what, we belong to each other," I said gently and reached for Hiccup's hand. I looked at him and although there were still telltale signs of pain on his face, his happiness almost made him shine.

"Alright then. So when are you planning on getting married?" Inquired my father and Hiccup's answer took me by surprise.

"Two weeks from now," he said sounding as excited as it was humanly possible.

"Hmm. Any reason for the rush?" He said looking at me with suspicious eyes.

"Nope. No. Nothing at all." I answered sounding a bit agitated, but at that point, I thought it was for the best if I keep my secrets and worries to myself.

"Okay..."

"Dad..." I wanted to ask one last question, but my father cut me off.

"Daughter, assuming that you want to know whether I let you spend the night with your fiancé, my answer is yes. But I want a contract in my hand before the crack of dawn."

I had to hug him, he was the most wonderful, understanding father ever. Meanwhile Hiccup confirmed that the legal documents would be in his hands early tomorrow. Then he took my hand and we said our good nights, heading out into the darkness to spend our half-official first night in the Haddock home together.

When we were up in his room, that was soon going to be our room, he gently took my hand to led me to his bed that was too, soon going to be ours.

"I hate to remind you," I said a little hesitantly, "but we need to write that contract. You know it takes hours to..."

He let go of my hand and walked to his desk. He lifted up a carefully rolled parchment that had the Haddock seal on it.

"I have already taken care of it," he said handing me the roll. I unfolded it. It was our marriage contract.

"But how do you...? We didn't..." I couldn't understand it...

He shrugged. "I guess, I was just hoping for the best."

"Am I the best, then?" I inquired jokingly.

He took the contract from my hand and ungracefully dropped it on the floor. "You are."

He pressed his lips on me and the kiss was the fresh water to our thirsty souls.

And then the room was just ours, the bed too, and on top of that, we had each other.


	13. Epilogue 1: What the Chief Deserves

I woke up at the crack of dawn only to find a handsome, slumbering Viking man sprawled across my very naked body. His stupid hair was tickling my nose and I was pretty sure he was drooling on my neck, yet I felt nothing but joy - it was as if we had finally arrived to the safe, warm port after traveling through untamed, cold waters most of our lives.

Suddenly, his fingers landed on my waist and damp kisses covered my neck and we really should have been gone by now, because my father was expecting us...

"Hiccup, we need to..." I tried to push him away gently, but he was already between my legs and still sleepily mumbled something about a 'dawn problem' that was _enormous_ and had to be addressed immediately and when he flashed a cheeky, lopsided smile, I couldn't resist him...

While we were dressing up, he came up with a silly song and when he sang "Oh, milady, sweet milady, don't deny that you're all mine." for the fifth time, I seriously considered punching his throat, but as it turned out, his horrible tunes was not the worst part of my morning.

After putting on my clothes that were lying next to his bed in a shameful pile, I touched my hair and it was all tangled up and when I asked for a brush or a comb, he just shrugged; he didn't have one.

I shook my head in annoyed disbelief and tried to re-arrange my braids with my fingers, but I knew that I had 'sex hair' and my father would obviously notice it...

Hiccup wasn't really bothered with my disgraceful hairstyle, he just grabbed the contract he had thrown on the floor the night before and then he casually took my hand and we walked through the silently sleeping village with sweaty fingers glued together.

§§§

Even though my father snapped his tongue when he saw how much dowry he was offered and a curtain of tears shadowed my mother's eyes, it was quite obvious for all four of us that my dad would have given me away for a handful of yak hair. It wasn't because he wanted to get rid of me, on the contrary, I knew it all too well that both of my parents would miss me dearly, it was because he understood that we had grown up and we belonged together.

We shared a breakfast with my family and Hiccup sent a messenger boy all across the island to notify the villagers that he was about to make an important announcement at midday in the Meade Hall.

§§§

When we arrived, the Hall was full of suspicious, murmuring Vikings. They were trying to figure out what was all this fuss about, but the big secret was unveiled as soon as we entered the building, hand in hand, with matching, crimson-colored cheeks.

Hiccup led me to the pulpit in the middle while protectively placing a warm palm on the small of my back. I needed all his support, I didn't like to be the centre of attention, but marrying him meant that I would never ever go unnoticed again.

His other hand was groping my sweaty fingers while he made a heartfelt speech about me and us and that we decided to tie our lives together in the most sacred bond.

The crowd cheered and my mother wept and our chief, again, shamelessly showed his affection towards me in front of all his people, when he grabbed my waist and pulled me close for a proud, honest kiss.

I blushed again under his lips and when we parted, he held up his hand to grab the crowd's attention and he made his second big announcement that the wedding was going to be two weeks from now.

The room became silent, but a minute later a wave of mutters started to spread and I clearly heard the words "rush" and "child".

The situations was getting awkward, but not because I had any regrets about laying with him. I didn't feel ashamed or guilty because I had slept with Hiccup on numerous occasions, because I loved him and I liked sleeping with him, my only regret was, that I did not tell him that I might be with child...

But his strong voice stopped all the rumors. He told his people that the reason for a hasty wedding was that he simply needed me. A chief's burdens were plenty and he wanted to share it with a wife - the sooner, the better.

Of course, it sounded more practical than romantic, and some men started to joke about 'letting out the steam', but the villagers seemed to understand the chief's reasoning.

As for me, I couldn't care less about what he had told them, all that mattered was that I knew his true intentions and I lived with the love that had been forming between us for many years...

When we were finally ready to leave the Hall to steal a little alone time before everything gets too hectic, a group of women approached us, led by Hilda the Handful, a middle aged woman who was the (very loud) voice of the women of the island. She was all excited and fired up, much like the rest of the ladies, and she told us that since time was scarce, my 'bridal training' should be started immediately.

We didn't really get this whole idea, no one ever mentioned 'bridal training' to us, but she quickly explained that the chief deserved nothing but the best and they must teach me all the necessary things a wife has to know.

I tried to avoid rolling my eyes, because I didn't want to be disrespectful, but the idea of spending my last maiden days with pins, needles and wooden spoons freaked me out a little. I knew that Hiccup didn't want me to be the wife who waited for his husband with warm dinner and mended socks, but it seemed that I couldn't escape the women's good intentions.

I weakly agreed that three hours later I would be at the Women's Hall, which I hardly ever entered, because it was basically a sewing club.

At that point, I started to feel a little sick, so I excused myself and I rushed home. It was the normally hated, but now more than welcomed monthly cramps and all. I was, of course, overjoyed when I found out that I was not pregnant and I would have jumped with joy around the house, if it weren't for that stupid back bending pain.

I rested for a while and waited until the teeth grinding soreness faded away a little and then I left the house and headed for the Women's Hall.

§§§

It was a small building with chairs and tables inside and there were all kinds of tools that I hardly even recognized. I was sure they were for making yarns and fabrics and I knew that by the end of this lesson the tips of my fingers would be covered by a million useless little scratches and holes, but seriously, why was this even necessary? Everybody knew that my intended was one of the best seamsters on the whole island...

I arrived early and cranky and I collapsed on a chair, with my elbows on my knees, hiding my tormented face behind tired palms. A minute later I heard some noise and to my surprise, Ruffnut appeared with the hugest smirk on her face. I didn't get it.

If I disliked womanly chores, she loathed them.

I looked at her in disbelief and I raised my hands to show her that I didn't understand her presence, but she started to laugh again and before I could question her, Hilda and the women appeared in the doorway.

I stood up to respectfully greet them while Ruffnut went to the far end of the room and sat on a chair making muffled noises. Hilda looked at her with angry eyes.

When Ruffnut became silent, the elderly woman turned her attention to me. She grabbed my chin with two fingers and turned my head from one side to the other, examining my face.

"You look tired," she said finally and I shrugged, I was aware of that, we had a couple of rough weeks behind us.

"You should sleep more, dear, you should go to bed as soon as the sun sets." I gave her a puzzled look, not quite understanding where she was going with this whole thing. The last time I was put to bed that early was when I was a toddler.

"You're marrying the chief and our chief deserves the best," she said while she placed a hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me back on the chair. "You need to be in your best form, Astrid, and baggy eyes are not exactly desirable."

I didn't feel the urge to protest, even though I knew Hiccup couldn't care less about the state of my eyes. He loved me when I was up and alert and he equally loved me – if not more - when I was down and tired.

"Okay," I said weakly, "let's just get over with it. Teach me whatever a woman needs to know and…"

"Patience, daughter," she cut me off and nodded towards the other woman. Two of them grabbed a smaller table and put it in front of her and a third one placed a sack on it.

I heard Ruffnut chuckle and I rolled my eyes… very funny, they are going to teach me how to mend my man's socks - at least, he had the decency to have 50 per cent less feet, which meant fewer socks... Argh, this was such an unbearably stupid way of wasting my time...

Hilda slid her hand into the sack and started to unpack its contents on the table. Ruffnut made some noise again and I was just curiously looking at the oblong leather objects of different sizes she put in front of me. Yep, it was really time to saw socks, I guessed.

Hilda looked at her little collection with competent eyes. She picked up a smaller one looked at it then looked at the other women. "Nah," she shook her head, "he is the chief.." He put back the small leather thingy back and reached for the longest one. She hesitated before grabbing it. "But... he is also Hiccup..." The other women giggled while her hand wandered back to a shorter, narrower one again.

I heard Ruffnut silently suffocating from suppressed laughter, but I still didn't get it. Why would the women be interested in the size of my bridegroom's foot?

But then Hilda made up her mind finally and lifted the biggest, thickest piece and held it in front of my eyes. "This," she started with a teacher-esque tone, "this piece of hard leather symbolizes the most precious part of your future husband..."

The women excitedly murmured around me and I finally started to get where she was coming from. My face turned crimson as she put the nasty man-symbol uncomfortably close to my face.

"And now, we're going to teach you how to handle this sacred object." I wanted to scream. I must have looked overly alarmed, because she gently placed her free hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, dear, what we're about to show you, might look and sound frightening at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's going to be pleasant."

The women started to giggle and I hated them for that, but I didn't hate them as much as I hated Ruffnut, who couldn't control herself anymore and landed on the floor, laughing as hard as possible, when Hilda opened her mouth and showed me how I should make my husband satisfied...

§§§

It was a long, awkward day and when I finally escaped from the hands of those pervert wenches, I hardly had enough strength to drag myself home. I was lying on my bed, panting weakly while trying to erase the horrendous things I had just witnessed from my mind.

There was a quiet knock on my door and when Hiccup's goofy head appeared, I mumbled a silent thank you - his sight was nothing but comforting. I was too weak to properly greet him, but I scooted away a little to give him enough space to be able to lie next to me.

He accepted the offer and his warm body was soon pressed to mine. "Oh, I missed you so much," he said to me while catching my lips with his mouth. After we parted, I put my head on the crook of his shoulder. " I had a terrible day..." I complained.

He turned his head and placed a small peck on my forehead. "Oh, did you stick a needle in your finger?" He asked while reaching for my right hand to examine my fingertips.

"Nope, it was way worth..." I groaned with a contorted face.

"How?" He said smiling and raised my hand to his mouth to place a trail of kisses on my fingers. "Did they make you weave? Or spin?"

I shook my head. "Worse..." I moaned and he tilted his head and looked at me with a puzzled expression.

I sighed. And blushed. And buried my face into his shoulder. His hand landed on my neck and he started to massage me. "Ah. They taught me how to please you... 'The chief deserves the best.'" I mimicked Hilda and I scrunched my nose with disgust.

His hand suddenly stopped. "Wait... what?" I lifted my head up and looked into his eyes. "They had those leather whatnots, symbolizing a man's... Whatever. They showed me where to put it and how..."

He started to laugh hard. I made an angry face and dropped my forehead back on his shoulder. His fingers started to stroke my head in order to comfort me. "I'm sorry, babe," he whispered into my hair, "it must have been awful...".

I agreed with a painful whimper. His fingers dig deeper into my hair and he started to massage my scalp. It was the best thing that happened to me all afternoon...

"Just out of curiosity... did you learn something interesting?" My fist landed on his arm with full force and it made him cry out in pain.

"I might have," I added with a wicked smile. Forgetting about the pain in his arm, he put his hand on my waist and pulled me closer.

He locked his lips with mine and his hand started to snake up towards my chest... but sadly, I had to stop him, so I broke our kiss.

"Hiccup..."

"Yeah, right... Erm, sorry. Your dad threatened to kill us if he hears just one squeak of the bed." The disappointment on his face made me smile.

"Oh... it's not that, I just..." I stopped not knowing whether I should share this very private thing with my future husband... I bit my lips and he looked at me curiously. "I just... I have this erm... monthly lady thingy that..."

I felt I was blushing and I had to look away from his gaze. I hoped he understood what I meant, but I really had no clue how much he knew about these things...

"Oh," he said and his fingers were back in my hair. He scooted closer to me and buried his face in my neck.

"Astrid?"

"Hmm?"

"How long... how long does it last?"

I had to smile, somehow his attentive curiosity made even this awkward conversation entertaining.

"Not very long. 4-5 days," I answered honestly.

"O-okay. And... do I need to do anything about it?"

"Hah. No. I just... I have these nasty cramps sometimes and I'm cranky and I get easily annoyed. I suggest you get out of my way when I get irritated for seemingly no reason."

"Wow. O-okay, I guess..." I pulled back to be able to see his face. He seemed a bit overwhelmed by all this so I smiled at him kindly and kissed him gently.

"You know, I'm actually quite relieved because of it," I whispered, "I mean... I was kind of... well, I thought I was pregnant for a couple of days..." Oh, I've said it, it was out... I was trembling a little and he looked at me with those big, serious eyes.

"Oh, Astrid, I'm so sorry..." He pulled me close and hugged me tightly. "You should have told me..."

"Hey, you had a lot of other things on your plate. Huge things..." I tried to comfort him with caressing his back.

"I'm sorry... I think I'm just too clumsy when it comes to women... I mean, I've... I've never lived with a woman in my life... Just when I was a baby, but... I guess that doesn't count."

He sounded genuinely sad and regretful and lost. I cupped his face and gently kissed him. "It's okay, we will shape and form each other until we fit perfectly."

"I'm in," he smiled at me and our lips touched again... When we parted, he looked at me with bleary, enchanted eyes. "Sooo... what was it? 5 days?"

"Yeah, Hiccup, 5, but..."

"Hmmm?"

"What if we don't do _anything_ until our wedding night? I want it to be special... Don't get me wrong, it's always special... I just want it to be _special special_..."

He laughed at me. "Sure... I mean, yeah. But... it's going to be a very long two weeks..."

"I know."

"Astrid?"

"Yeah, babe, me too."

§§§

He was right, it was the longest two weeks of my life. We had hardly enough time to meet and when we had, it was usually late at night and we were too tired to have a coherent conversation. But I wasn't complaining, far from it, because all things were about us and our forthcoming union.

Luckily, the good women of our tribe didn't feel the urge to educate me anymore, now it was the men's turn to wink at Hiccup and say enigmatic and almost rude suggestions about his wedding night.

Yeah, we were both excited about it and we both missed the intimacy dearly. It was hard to resist the temptation and on at least two occasions I'm sure Hiccup had to do something with _himself_ when he went home from our house, because yeah, things got a bit heated in my bedroom...

But luckily, the wait was over and our day had come, but I have to admit, I wasn't exactly excited about the ceremony or the party, I just wanted to be his wife. I was waiting for the moment when there was going to be just the two of us, in our house, in our bedroom, on our bed and we can finally melt into each other officially, for the first time ever.

I felt a little sad in the morning when I had my last breakfast as a maiden with my parents and all three of us were gulping our tears when me and my father shared our last slice of bread. Meanwhile, Hiccup spent the early hours of the morning in the air with Toothless.

He tried to explain to the dragon that from now on there was going to be the three of us living together, but Toothless wasn't particularly happy about it. It's not that he had anything against me, I dare to say we had a strong bond, but he knew that if I moved to Hiccup's room, he would have to move downstairs... I tried to bribe him with extra portions of salmon and cod, but he was still a little fussy about the new sleeping arrangements.

Early in the afternoon, my Viking flew away to collect his mom, who still spent most of her nights at her dragon cave, even though she got her old room back at the Haddock house. I guess she didn't want to get in our way. Our relationship was still a bit frail and fragile, but we did our best to get along and we tried to know each other better, searching for the things we could value in one another.

While he was away, the group of women led by that handful Hilda came to our house to pamper me before the wedding and she, again, kept on repeating that the chief deserved the best and they bathed me at least three times and soaked me in ointments and showered my with flowers and when they were finished the whole ordeal, I felt as if someone had vomited a meadow on me.

But I had no right to protest. I tried to disobey at one point when they forced me to do something I didn't feel comfortable about, but when I tried to talk them out of it, they looked at me with narrow, evil eyes, so I sheepishly did as I was told...

And then everything happened so fast. They dressed me up in some uncomfortable clothes and suddenly I became unbearably nervous and then I saw Hiccup and he was trembling and anxious and so adorable that I had to wipe the hidden tears from the corner of my eyes.

And then we became man and wife and there was a party and I couldn't really eat or drink or enjoy myself because all I wanted was to be alone with him.

Midnight came and the mead made everyone cheerful and the men started to nag Hiccup about doing his husbandly duties. He laughed at them at first, but then he took my hand and we stood up and I blushed when I realized that every person on the island knew what we were about to do...

They escorted us to our house, but Hiccup told them to go back to the Hall and enjoy the rest of the night while we... oh well, yeah.

We went inside the house and he closed the door behind us and I wanted to clap and jump like a happy little girl. Hiccup looked at me and only said "Oh" and he pushed me to the wall and started to kiss me. He grabbed me by my waist and pulled me closer and I felt how hot and hard he was underneath his clothes and then... he sneezed.

"Wow... Astrid, your smell is intense," he said confused.

"I know... I think the ladies have overreacted our wedding and..."

He couldn't hold himself and started to kiss me again. And then he sneezed again, twice this time.

"Ooookay... I think we have a small problem here..."

This made me pout. He smiled at me and shook his head, "Come on, I'll bath you. I won't spend my wedding night sneezing in your face and other parts, just because those eager beaver women think I'm into women with strong odors."

He took my hand and lead me to the bathroom. Luckily, the tub was full of water, so he lit the logs under it to warm it up. While we were waiting, he turned back to me and stroked my arms from a safe distance. I lifted my hands and started to fumble with the laces that hold together my bridal dress and I managed to successfully undo everything and it fell to the floor and I gracefully stepped out of it.

His eyes grew bigger when he saw me in nothing but my underwear and feather-light fingers started to map my body from my neck down to my waist.

He tested the water and his wet hands helped me get rid off my breast bindings. He marveled at the sight of my chest, his proud gaze caressing my mounds gently. He couldn't resist the temptation and his hands followed his eyes, making me moan as I bucked into his damp palms.

"I didn't plan our wedding night like this, but I'm not complaining... everything is always so amazing with you Astrid Ho... Haddock."

It was so sweet how he said my new name for the first time. I had to hug him. "I love you, husband." He tried to fight his itchy nose, but he had to pull away to sneeze again... So much for the romance, but at least it made us both giggle.

"Okay, milady, it's high time to take that bath." He reached for the last piece of clothing that I was still wearing and suddenly, I remembered the last thing those idiot, over-enthusiastic women made me do...

I grabbed his wrists and stopped him. "Erm... promise me, you won't be surprised."

He quirked a brow and looked at me with a puzzled expression. "Surprised? Hey, I swear, I have already taken a few good looks at it before, so..."

That earned him a punch on the arm. His face was contorted with pain, but I took no notice of it. I hooked my thumbs under the hem and started to pull my underclothes off. "Apparently, they not only assumed that you liked your woman scented, but also hairless."

His eyes almost popped out from their sockets when he saw me. The useless piece of clothing landed on the floor and I kicked it away before I straightened myself. He couldn't tear his eyes off from my... "Yeah, they made me shave. I'm sorry, I couldn't tell them you liked it the way it was, because then they would know that we..."

He dropped on his knees before me and shamelessly kissed me down there. I shivered. "Wow, Astrid... I love it..."

He spread my legs a little and his tongue darted out. I wanted to stop him, to remind him that this was our wedding night and even though we broke a couple of traditions, we could keep a few, like using our bed for making love for the first time. But he was too fast and everything he did with his wonderful mouth was too good, so I moaned into the steamy bathroom air and when he was finished and I was done, I collapsed next to him on the floor.

He was panting as hard as I was, but then a series of sneezes attacked him again, so I stood up, tugging him up with me. I started to fiddle with the buckle on his belt.

"I thought you were about to take a bath," he said, misinterpreting my moves a little.

"I am, I just don't want to have my first married bath alone. Would you join me, Mr. Haddock?"

He smiled. "With utmost pleasure, Mrs. Haddock."

"Splendid," I said and stepped inside the tub, sinking into the warm water. A minute later he was all naked and he took off his leg and I helped him get inside.

He sat behind me and held me close while using a yakmilk soap to clean my body. His lips grazed the soft skin of my neck from behind, while his fingers gave a foamy massage to my breasts in the front.

"I'm sorry about before," he whispered, "it just looked so incredibly hot and I couldn't resist the temptation..."

I smiled. "At least, there's something I can thank those woman for."

He moved behind me a little and I felt his shaft all hot and hard against the small of my back. I liked the feeling, but there was something I loved even more... I lifted my hips, I laced my fingers around him and I sit on his hardness very slowly. We both moaned when he was all inside me.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Haddock, if you imagined this moment in the sanctity of our bedroom," I panted while he was slowly rocking under me.

"Truth be told, Mrs... ah... Haddock, I-I imagined us doing this in every corner... on every chair... the table... in ah... front of the he-hearth... and the ah... bed..."

"That's a lot of... Uh...ah... places Mr... Haddock for... ah... one night."

He stopped with his movements, but he was still inside me, hard, hot and heavy.

I turned my head to face him and he leaned closer to me and pressed his lips on mine.

"I think, I've been waiting for this night all my life."

I pressed my nose to his. "Deep down in my heart me too, Mr. Haddock."

He hugged me so hard it hurt.


	14. Epilogue 2: One Breath

"Oh, Gods... Astrid, I swear to Thor I won't touch you, ever again... I wo-won't even go near you."

His face is contorted with fear now, even though he successfully managed to hide his panic for a long time. He is cupping my sweaty, exhausted face and hisses every time I scrunch my nose in pain. He is annoying and I want to punch him, but I can't and he is adorable and I want to kiss him, but that's not possible either.

"Really, babe, if I had known that you would suffer this much, I never would have..."

"Oh, shut your mutton hole!" I cut him off, probably a little too harshly, but I need him to be braver right now. He's not the only one who feels helpless and worried. "Could you wipe my forehead? It felt good before..."

He grabs the rag with trembling fingers and dips it into the bowl of cold water on the bed stand. He gently places it on my forehead and the cool water dripping down on my face gives me some comfort. But oh, I'm still in very much pain...

The mid-wife lifts my tunic up and checks on me. I feel a sharp sting and I know it's totally normal, Hiccup, however fixes the elderly woman until she finally nods that everything is okay and my dear, panicking husband lets out a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, I feel another unearthly jolt of pain in my stomach and I grab his arm. I squeeze him until my fingers go white and I let go of him as soon as the throbbing in my abdomen fades away.

I have a calm moment and I use it to look at his face, to examine the deep rows of wrinkles that were ploughed into his forehead by the hours of my constant torments. I want to tell him how much I love him because he rebelled against the women and stayed next me, even though it is considered to be scandalous if a husband is in the room when his wife is in labor. But words are too hard now, so I just try to smile at him, but the stinging pain is back again and instead of a reassuring grin, I bite my lower lip.

The painless periods are getting shorter and I know it means we are getting closer to meet the little one, but since everything is new and unfamiliar, I don't know what to expect and the insecurity makes me nervous and even upset a little.

The mid-wife checks on me again and announces that it's time to push. If only I knew what she means by that and how to do it...

They push my legs up and order me to pull my knees towards my chest and I'm angry, because it's uncomfortable and it hurts, but I look at my poor man and I feel a bit shocked when I see how white he is. I don't want him to faint and miss our first minutes with the tiny one, so I decide on getting over with the whole ordeal with a straight face and a brave heart. For all three of us.

"Hiccup..." He looks at me with big, tear-laced eyes. "Hiccup. I love you." I don't see his reaction because the agony starts again and I close my eyes, but I feel his feathery fingers on my forehead.

I'm getting a bit confused now, it's hard to concentrate because the pain grows with every second, but I try to pushpushpush and I pant a lot and I then I have to start it all over again, until I feel totally out of this world and there's nothing there just me and the pain that seeps into me through my pores and it tries to tear me into million pieces...

And suddenly... it's all gone. It's nowhere to be found or felt, it disappears into thin air... There's an excitement at my feet and I hear muffled voices and little squeaky sounds and Hiccup stands up and he leaves me and I feel so desperately lonely, but I'm too weak to even lift my head.

I want to cry, oh, I really want to cry, but he's back and he has a little bundle in his arms and he kneels down next to me and gently places the little fur covered ball on me and when I notice a tuft of chestnut hair sticking out from underneath the furs, the tears escape my eyes...

With a finger, I carefully lift the furs a little and there is this most perfect creature, peacefully lying in my arm. I look at my husband and his face is wet with tears too, and he is sniffing and I'm sobbing and the tiny one yawns in my arms.

"I told you it was a boy." He leans closer to me and places a little peck on my damp cheek. I smile at him and he smiles back. "We really aced it," he adds with a cocky grin and I know he, the dragon killer, has never felt this proud.

"Yeah, you're my hero," I compliment him and I lift my hand and grab his tunic and I pull him closer to kiss him properly.

"I love you," he says quietly when we part, "I love you both."

§§§

Finally, our house is quiet. The mid-wife and my parents have left and I managed to feed the baby for the first time and he is slumbering in my arms. We silently adore him while sitting next to each other on our bed. My husband's head rests on my shoulder and he is quietly thinking while stroking the fur that covers his miniature doppelgänger. His overgrown "cat" is sleeping at our feet, in our giant, dragon-proof bed, guarding his people in a curled up position.

Toothless had a rough night too. He didn't really understand why he was shut out from the room when his master was so agitated and my constant screaming was also a frightening mystery to him. And when he was finally let into the room, Hiccup was holding a small creature, who smelled like us and looked like Hiccup and everything must have felt so unfair for the dragon at first...

But Hiccup was patient, he held the baby for him, so Toothless could examine the hatchling as long as he wanted to and after long minutes of silent watching and curious sniffing, he poked the tip of his tongue out and he looked at Hiccup shyly waiting for his permission. Hiccup nodded with a grin on his face and Toothless licked the little one's face. The baby wiggled and made the cutest coos and when the loyal reptile cooed back to him, I knew the baby had stolen Toothless's heart too.

"Are you thinking about your mom?" I ask, breaking the silence. There's an elephant in the room that needs to be addressed...

Hiccup shrugs. "I've sent Fishlegs for her, but she wasn't in the sanctuary, so he left her a note."

He tries to sound neutral, but I know it hurts him a little. Her presence at the baby's birth could have marked the start of a new beginning. I turn my head and kiss him. "It's okay, babe," he whispers.

Our front door opens downstairs, but we're too tired to get up and greet our late night visitor. Soon we hear light steps coming up on our squeaking stairs and Valka appears in the door. Glittering snowflakes paint her dark hair whiter and her cheeks are kissed red by the cool winter wind. She's smiling and there's a small bundle in her hand - a present, I assume.

Suddenly, Toothless lifts his head up and looks at Valka. He sniffs in the air and jumps down from the bed, trying to get closer to the thing Valka is holding, but she gently pats him away.

"Oh, Mom, did you get my message?" Hiccup stands up and holds his arm out. His mom grabs his hand and squeezes it. It looks oddly formal, but she seems to be extra careful with the little thingy she is holding in her other hand...

"Yes, son, and I came as soon as I could." She is still smiling and Hiccup smiles back at her, then gestures towards our baby.

"Oh, right, Mom, meet your grandson... Finn Dragonheir Haddock I."

She leans closer and looks at the slumbering baby in my arms. Toothless is still really interested in whatever she is hiding, but Valka doesn't let him touch or smell it.

"He is beautiful..." She says in awe of the baby. "Congratulations to you both." We thank her simultaneously.

"Son, the reason I came this late is because I was helping at another birth..." Hiccup looks at me with a puzzled face and he has every right to be surprised, whose birth could have been more important for Valka than her first grandson's?"

"A Gronckle brought an egg to me and it was cracked and..." She starts to unfold the bundle in her hand. "So, the egg shell was broken and I feared he wouldn't make it..." Something starts to move under the thick fabric, but we can't see it yet. "I massaged him and tried to warm him up and... Phew... ten minutes later, he finally took that _one breath_ I was so desperately waiting for."

Suddenly, Tootheless goes totally crazy. It's weird. He jumps and makes some sharp, overly excited noises I've never heard from him before.

"Kids, I want you to meet this little fighter... He's One Breath."

I feel a tug at my heart when I saw the tiny Night Fury in her hand...

"Mighty Thor..." Mumbles my shocked husband. " But how could it be?"

Valka shakes her head and shrugs. "I don't know. But... I guess some things are just good as they are - without asking any further questions"

Toothless is finally allowed to take a good look at the small dragon. He sniffs him and presses his nose to the tiny one's side and One Breath suddenly sneezes, with which he frightens himself and the baby dragon covers his eyes with his miniscule tail, just like Toothless does it when he is tired or wants to ignore us. We all laugh at the little ninny and I can't help but let out a deep sigh.

Hiccup looks at me worriedly, but I shake my head. There's nothing wrong, on the contrary, it's all too perfect.

§§§

Two and a half years later...

The cool spring wind bites my face with its sharp teeth, but I don't mind it. I feel free, I'm up in the air and Stormfly floats with me above the clouds. My husband and his Night Fury fly right before us and I take a good look at his perfect butt when he lifts himself up in the saddle to make navigation easier. He looks back at me and he's smiling from ear to ear.

I shake my head with curling lips; he is a serious chief, a gentle husband and a dedicated father, yet somehow he is still the same old goofball I fell in love with.

But his excitement is understandable, it's going to be the first night we spend together, just the two of us, since little Finn was born. And our son was nothing but proud when he learnt that he could spend the night at Grandma Valka's magic dragon home. We're not worried about him, Valka is an attentive grandmother and One Breath is basically glued to Finn - his not allowed to fly his dragon just yet, because the little Night Fury is not strong enough, but they inseparable.

The whole trip is a surprise from Hiccup, he organized the free night for us to celebrate the 5th anniversary of our wedding. He packed everything behind my back and when he told me after I had woken up that we would take a trip to the Itchy Armpit, I kissed him with all my passion.

We arrive a good hour later and I make the fire while he puts up our old tent. We fry shrimps and fish and we drink mead and as the night darkens on us, his hungry lips catch my mouth more and more often. We say goodbye to the dragons and we crawl inside the tent... And then...

He gets crazy about me. I'm crazy about him. We peel each other's clothes off in no time. He nibbles at my neck and his hands cup my breasts while my fingers lace around his hard shaft. We both moan silently because we got used to doing the do quietly because of Finn...

"Babe... I want to make you scream..." He mutters to my collarbone. "I miss your screams."

"You have to work for them," I say with a smile and I sigh when he latches on my nipple. Meanwhile, his diligent fingers find my clit and I give out a loud "ah". He smiles against my nipple and he sucks at it while his fingers touch me at all the right places...

His lips soon travel further down and I pant really hard when his tongue licks me between my folds. He presses a thumb to my clit and draws tiny circles while his tongue dances around it. I arch my back and I tremble with pleasure and when he pushes two fingers inside me an "I love you, babe," leaves my mouth.

He sucks at my clit gently than little harder and he adds another finger... I fist the furs above my head and I repeat my I-love-yous a million times and when a couple minutes later his diligent work pays off, I came with a loud scream.

He laughs when he crawls back up to me to kiss me. I taste myself on his lips and it excites me and I snake my legs around him and I pull him close. "I want you inside me, now," I moan with pure lust and there's no need for begging. He thrusts into me.

"Ah, babe, you're wonderful... I fucking love how tight you're... Gods." He is rocking into me, deeper with every push and I dig into his shoulders with my ten nails. He turns me from my side to my back and he reaches under the crook of my knees and pushes my legs up, pressing them to my chest. "Ah, Gods, Hiccup, this is amaz... Ahahahah..." The angle is unbelievably good and it's so unlikely that after all these years of active sex life, he can still come up with fascinating new ideas...

My second orgasm is a little bit quieter, but there's the added pleasure of him spilling into me a couple seconds later...

Then he gently lets my legs down and lies next to me, pressing his sweaty body to mine.

"Thank you, babe," he mumbles into my ear.

"You're an idiot," I smile back.

"Mmm, I love Finn to death, but... It's mmm nice to have some alone time with you," he continues.

"Mhm."

"I'm glad, he is all big now and can spend the night at my mom's." His hands land on my hips and he pulls me closer.

"Yeah, we have a couple of months left until we have to stay at home again..."

His hands stop and lifts his head to look at me. He is adorably confused and it makes me grin. "Yes, Hiccup."

"Huh. Wow. Oh. How... When... Oh... Gods..."

"Relax. I learnt it two days ago and we have a good seven months before..."

"Huh. Two kids? Oh."

"Yes, chief, we're going to have two kids."

"That's... that's... wow."

I punch his arm. "Enough with your stupid wows!"

"O-okay..."

"Now, let's use our time wisely... I erm... really liked what you did with your erm... fingers and tongue before..."

"Yeah? Oh, yeah... Yeah, I heard you liked it."

"I kind of want to like it again..."

He looks at me with those beautiful green eyes and leans down to kiss me. "Your wish is my command, m'lady."

**FIN**

§§§

**Wow. First of all, thank you for reading it, I hope you liked it. **

**If you did, I have a drabble series, entitled Hiccstrid in the Air, and it's basically the continuation of this fanfic.**

**Also feel free to contact me on tumblr (haddocksortails) if you have any questions or requests.**

**And thanks for the kind and thoughtful reviews, they are my pride and joy. **


	15. Epilogue 3: Tia (Part One)

**Hi guys, **

**I was deeply touched when I realized that this humble fanfic was favorited by more than 300 people, so, as a thank you, here comes the first part of an extra chapter. **

**I hope you'll like it. In case you have questions, requests or spare bananas, feel free to contact me on tumblr (haddocksortails tumblr com). **

**§§§**

Skullcrusher couldn't have chosen a worse day to bolt with Eret. The sudden change of speed took him by surprise and he slipped off from the saddle, 30 feet above ground. Much to his luck, he broke through thick shrubs, which attenuated his fall, plus he was with Fishlegs and Snotlout, who immediately flew to his help. Well, there wasn't much they could do apart from taking the unconscious Eret back to the village, hoping that Gothi would help him wake up.

Unfortunately, the elder had bad news. Eret fell into a deep coma and none of her herbs seemed to help. He also had a broken left leg, but luckily, Gothi's experienced hands could easily set the shinbone and now it was in a tight bondage under his torn pants. I was standing with Ruffnut in front of the healer's hut, watching concernedly as the boys took him away, back home, on a hastily made stretcher. My lanky girlfriend was looking at the knocked out man with narrowed eyes, hands akimbo.

"If he wasn't already half-dead, I would totally kill him," she hissed through gritted teeth.

"Ruff, I'm sure it wasn't his fault. It could have happened to any of us," I said trying to calm her, but she just rolled her eyes and tut-tutted at all the going-ons.

Then she suddenly groaned. "Oh, that son-of-a-bitch!"

I looked at her and noticed a strange grimace on her face. "Ruffnut, I know you have never been the mistress of the terms of endearment, but he is in quite bad shape now."

"Eh, I'm not talking about Eret."

I have to admit, I was a bit puzzled. I was sure I hadn't offended her, but Ruffnut was hypersensitive lately.

"Ungh, it's not him or you, it's the baby."

"The baby?"

"Yes. I think my water just broke."

I looked down between us worriedly, and I saw a small puddle growing between Ruff's leg.

"Oh, Gods," I moaned.

"Stop whining, Astrid, I'm the one who is going into labor with a useless husband. Sweet Freya, why the fuck did I let him touch me?"

I cleared my throat. "Erm... because you like him. Well, most of the time."

"I hate him right now. Ah..." She groaned again and pressed her palms on her ridiculously big belly.

"Okay... you know what? Let's just walk home and deliver this baby."

I offered her my arm, but she pushed it away. "I'm not a cripple. My husband is. And yours too," she rasped angrily and started to limp away.

"I have a feeling that this day is going to be unfairly long," I sighed while following her. Sadly, Hiccup was away at the moment, visiting his mother with our little son, and I seriously hoped they would return soon. There was a bit too much going on at the moment on the island he was chiefing.

Ruffnut stopped and panted for awhile. "Eh, splendid, huh, now I feel like shit." I quietly offered her my arm again and this time she accepted it and we slowly started to walk again.

"Does it really hurt?"

"Giving birth? Yes, it does," I admitted honestly, but I couldn't tell her that the presence of my clueless, miserable looking husband made everything so much easier...

"If it hurts, I'll break his dick."

I giggled. "You would regret it later."

"Don't tell me that you are still fucking, you have already presented an heir to Berk."

I didn't mind her stupid remarks, I knew her, I knew it was just her way of coping with hardships, which now she had plenty.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but we still really like each other. And he is surprisingly good in bed. And on table."

"Yuk, I'm going to puke on your boots if you go into the gory details."

I shook my head. "I know you're curious, but hey, you are happily married too, so I'm sure you have some ideas about the details."

"Fuck your happiness, Astrid," she hissed.

We were almost at their house, but she had to stop again, because of her contractions.

"Astrid?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you want another kid?"

"Erm... not right now. I mean it's still not that easy with Finn, he is not even two yet." Yes, we have discussed it with Hiccup, and even though Finn was an amazing addition to our family, he was tiresome, like all little kids. Plus we had two adult dragons, one baby dragon and whole island of stubborn Vikings to deal with. As of now, we had more than enough on our plates.

"So do you take precautions?"

I quirked an eyebrow. Only Ruffnut can talk about birth control right before giving birth... "Yes, we do. But why is it important?"

"It isn't. I just tried to kill them time." She groaned again. I gently tugged at her hand.

"Come on, we are not far. You should be lying down."

We slowly started to walk again.

"Haddock?"

"Yes, Eret's wife Ruffnut?"

"You were kidding about the pain part, right?"

I looked at her slim face. Her forehead was already glistening with sweat. She bit down on her lip when another contraction jolted through her body.

"Nope."

"Oh, fuck... I knew it was a stupid idea. I'm going to give a stupid name to this kid."

"What does Eret want?"

"Eret, son of Eret, grandson of Eret. Bleh."

She said it with so much fake bile that I had to giggle. "Isn't that stupid enough?"

"My brother wants to call him Alek, short for Alektorophobia."

"And what the heck is that?"

"Fear of chicken."

I patted her shoulder gently. "Ruffnut, you probably shouldn't let your brother name your first-born."

She shook my hand off. "Eh, I might even give him to Tuff. He said he wanted a tiny stable boy on his snake farm."

"Ruuufffnut, I can assure you, you will love this child." I tried to comfort her, but it wasn't easy, because she basically hated everything about her pregnancy. She was with me during my pregnancy, and she saw me puke every morning for a week, she laughed at my small lump then at my swollen belly and she pitied me when I couldn't go flying anymore. No, it wasn't something she wanted for herself, yet it happened almost right after she had got married. It wasn't a really good timing, and I remember how frightened she was when she realized just how much attention a baby required while she watched me taking care of Finn.

On top of that, we had a baby Night Fury, One Breath, living in our house, an untamed little wildling, who couldn't control his fire power and set everything ablaze in his near vicinity. For granted, he didn't have much power yet, but it was enough to burn a sweep or scorch a boot. Poor Toothless was a bit stressed about the two new additions. I think he was more or less okay with Finn, because he looked like a tiny Hiccup, and he was soft and pink and had a wonderful smell, but sometimes the baby was fussy and was crying through the night, and Hiccup was too tired to wake up for their early morning flight and it rightfully annoyed his dragon.

But he definitely liked our little human, he made faces to make Finn laugh and he forgave him every time the little one pulled his ears too hard. But Toothless had a very different relationship with One Breath. Of course, he played with the baby dragon too, just like he did with Finn, but he also felt that it was his responsibility to educate and discipline the little rascal. And it wasn't easy, because at this point, One Breath was a menace, a tiny thunder that stormed back and forth in our house, causing havoc. Well, I'm not saying that Toothless was always patient with him, he often bared his teeth at him and even bit One Breath's tail every once in awhile, when nothing else worked. They weren't friends or equals, it was a parent-child relationship between them, and even though they probably weren't even related, it worked for them.

And then unexpectedly our life shifted back to normal. One night at the hearth, I was sitting between Hiccup's legs, tiredly resting my head on his shoulder, while he gently held me with crossed arms. We were looking at the little slumber party in front of our eyes: our son and the little dragon, sleeping in a sweet embrace. Toothless was there, too, dreaming with them, while he protectively covered the babies with his tail fin. It was the cutest thing we had ever seen and we wordlessly watched them until our lids became too heavy and we, too, fell asleep at the heat of the fire.

And then it hit me why Ruffnut seemed even grumpier now than she was before. Yes, she wasn't happy about her pregnancy, but Eret was so cool about it. He was genuinely happy and he somehow made the whole "we're going to have a baby" thing seem natural and easy. He supported Ruffnut and he was extra kind to her, even when she randomly lashed out at him because of her frequent mood changes. And now, when she needed him the most, he was unavailable, lying in their bedroom like a sack of coal.

"Listen, Ruffnut, I'm going to stay with you, don't worry," I said softy.

"The whole time?" My heart crushed when I realized for the first time just how lost she must have felt.

"Of course!"

"But you have a baby..."

"Eh, Finn is a big lad now, and his dad can deal with him for a night. I'll stay."

"Okay," she said quietly.

We arrived to the house and Fishlegs was just coming down from the upstairs bedroom.

"He-he is alright," he stuttered, "I mean, he is just lying in bed... but he does it nicely."

Ruffnut looked at him, but didn't say a word, so I had to do the talking.

"Fish, thanks a lot. Erm... could you do us a favor?"

He nodded seriously and I think it was at that moment he noticed that something wasn't right with Ruffnut, because she grabbed a chair and started to groan very unladylike.

"Is-is she alright?"

"Yeah, she is, but she is in labor. Could you get us the midwife?"

His first reaction was a worried scream, "Oh!" And he stayed at the bottom of the stairs, staring at us. I snapped my fingers to get his attention.

"Fish, it's kinda urgent..."

"Oh, yes. Yes! I'll go and..."

"Get us the midwife."

"O-okay."

He was still standing, petrified. I got tired of waiting, so I went behind him and basically pushed him out of the house. "Go. Bring the midwife. Here. Now."

§§§

An hour later, everything was sorted out. Ruffnut was in the downstairs bedroom, cursing every time she had contractions, which became more and more frequent. The elderly midwife was with her and I made sure we had enough clean cloths and basins filled with hot and cold water. I was getting excited and my cheerful remarks probably annoyed Ruffnut to death, but I couldn't wait to meet her baby. Meanwhile, my husband arrived with our baby, sleeping in his arms, so I went out to greet them.

"Wow. Heard the big news," he whispered and leaned to me for a warm kiss. Ruffnut cursed again in the other room, calling either the baby or the midwife an asshole.

"Ookay, I take Ruff isn't the hugest fan of childbirth."

"Who is, Hiccup?"

"Well, you..."

I shouldered him playfully. "As I recall, I threatened to kill you a couple of times."

"But it was all worth it," he said and gestured at Finn, who has just started to open his eyes. "Oh, I think he is hungry. He was a bit cranky, but then he fell asleep while we were flying back home."

"It's okay," I said and held my hands out for Finn, who was on the verge of crying, "mummy will feed her hungry little Viking."

"Astrid, I heard about Eret, too, is he upstairs?" He couldn't hide his worries, but it was understandable, they've become very close friends in the past years.

"Mhm. I'll go with you, the boys will be here soon, and I need 20 calm minutes with Finn."

"Sure," he said while we headed for the stairs, "and oh, I met Gobber and he said he could take care of Finn."

"You want to stay here?"

He smiled. "Of course, I'm excited about the new addition to my tribe."

He was too cute. I would have kissed him on the top of the stairs, but Finn started to sob in my arms, so I went to the smaller bedroom, sat on the bed and unwrapped myself for the starving babe in my arms. He hungrily latched onto me. Hiccup came in a few minutes later and I could feel his anguish. He sat down next to me without a word, and stroked his little son's chestnut hair while he was eating with huge gulps. Finn looked at his dad cheekily and smiled while still sucking on my breast. This made Hiccup giggle, which was a relief, but then he took a deep, heartbroken sigh. Finn finished eating and I put my bindings and tunic back on. I scooted closer to my husband and pressed my nose to his neck.

"He'll be alright, babe. Gothi said it could take some time, though."

He sighed again. "I know, it's just hard to see him like that: lying in bed, doing nothing."

"He'll be alright, I promise."

§§§

The afternoon turned into the night, but Ruffnut was still in labor. Of course, giving birth usually takes hours, but there was something wrong, she seemed to get weaker and weaker by every passing minute. She wasn't cursing anymore, just clenched her teeth in pain, sweating buckets. I tried to help her by letting her dig into my arm, while I washed her face with a warm cloth.

"This really sucks," she panted quietly.

I smiled at her encouragingly. "I know Ruff, but when it's over, it's over, and the pain will be gone and you will have a cute baby..."

She calmed down a little and my gaze shifted to the midwife who was checking something between her legs. She didn't exactly seem happy or content. She had already sent for Gothi an hour ago, and the aged healer was now mixing something in the corner to ease Ruff's pain. Her face was expressionless, like most times, when she was concentrating on her job, but the room's air felt unusually heavy.

I wiped Ruff's forehead again. It felt warm, too warm.

"I think, she has fever," I announced quietly. Gothi looked up at me for a second and mumbled something under her breath before turning back to her herbs and mortars. Ruffnut was awfully quiet and it didn't feel right. She was just lying without words or movement, with fever-bleared eyes and damp forehead. She grimaced when a contraction came, but she was too weak to complain about it.

A hard moment later, she looked at me with agony-darkened eyes. Her dry lips opened and she inhaled sharply before asking the question that shattered my heart.

"Will you take care of my baby... if I'm gone?"

**TBC**


	16. Epilogue 3: Tia (Part Two)

**Reviews are very much appreciated. This epilogue is so dear to my heart for various reasons.**

**(Update: Oops, sorry, nothing new yet, I just somehow deleted this chapter and had to upload it again. :-z)**

I was so angry at her. Sure, she was in a bad state, but she should have had a little more faith in herself and everyone else in the room, including the gods and the other unknown forces that somehow always took good care of us.

We were Vikings, we were warriors, and she should have remembered that, no matter how fragile, sick and hopeless she felt right now.

Luckily, before I could tell her off with an annoyed retort, Gothi stepped in and gave her two spoonfuls of the milky substance she stirred while my girlfriend was struggling. Ruff coughed a few times, but then she calmed down, her contorted face smoothened and a tiny smile of relief wrinkled her mouth when her pains slowly died away.

She was half-asleep, and I took the opportunity to step out from the room, to talk to my man, because I desperately wanted to find a moment of comfort in his closeness.

The other room was silent, save from the rhythmical snores of Snotlout, who was lying on his stomach, spread out like a frog in front of the hearth. Fishlegs was leaning to the wall nearby, peacefully drooling in his quiet sleep, while Tuffnut lay on his back on the threshold, guarding the door of his sister's house in his sleep.

Hiccup was the only one who was sitting in a chair, but he was fast asleep too, with his arms crossed in front of his chest and his head hanging down.

I crouched next to him, and gently stroked his forehead. He woke up immediately and smiled first when he recognized me, but he soon discovered that I was wearing a frown, and it made him worried.

"What's wrong?" he whispered.

"Can we go out for a sec?" I asked. I stood up and hold out a hand for him. He took it and I led him out of the house, carefully lifting my feet when I stepped over Tuffnut at the doorway.

The air was fresh and cool and I took a couple of deep breaths before I turned to Hiccup and sought shelter on his chest, buried between his strong arms.

"What's wrong?" He muttered again while he pressed his nose to my head and gently stroked my hair.

I wanted to cry. I had never felt this frustrated and vulnerable in my life, but I didn't want to frighten him, so I swallowed my sobs and only started to talk when I knew that my voice wouldn't crack.

"She is so sick," I muttered into his chest and was surprised how neutral I sounded, somehow I managed to hide all my agony and sorrow.

"I'm sorry…" His hold tightened around me, and he breathed a small kiss on my temple. Tears were stinging my eyes, but I managed to hold them back.

"It's okay. I just… I needed to share it with you." I wiggled out from his arms and I locked gazes with him for a tender moment.

"I need to go back."

He nodded and stroked my face. "Everything's going to be alright."

I wanted to believe him.

§§§

The second time I came out of Ruffnut's room was a much more pleasant occasion. The dark night was over and the orange beams of the morning Sun had just started to paint the room golden. The boys were more or less awake - no wonder, the last part of the delivery was a bit louder, the house was filled with Ruffnut's weakening screams and the baby's crying.

They all seemed worried. Tuffnut was the quickest; he jumped to his feet and stumbled towards me. Hiccup emerged from his chair and Fishlegs took a few, hesitant steps before stopping at my left. I looked at Snotlout, who was still rubbing the dream out of his eyes with the heel of his hand, but I patiently waited for him to catch up with the others.

The little, warm bundle I was holding in my hands, moved and cooed. I smiled at the men circle around me while I gently presented them the baby.

"Guys, I want you to meet Eretia, daughter of Eret."

Tuffnut leaned closer and he sniffed. "She-she is so beautiful. She is prettier than my chicken. Or Macy…"

"She is," I agreed and even though all he said was his usual mumbo jumbo, he was clearly touched.

"Who would have thought that this much beauty could come out of my sister's…?"

Uh, right. Luckily, Hiccup cut him off. "How is Ruffnut?"

I waited a second before answering him. "She… She is better, but she has a high temperature. Unfortunately, it seems that Gothi's herbs haven't done their job yet."

"Eret is okay. I mean, he hasn't moved, but he looks erm… like a healthy sleeper," said Fishlegs.

I looked at Hiccup. I had to talk to him.

"Tuffnut, would you mind holding your niece for a moment? I need to go out with Hiccup for a quick word."

The male Thorston twin sat on the chair, and I put the baby in his arms. He had trails of tears on his cheeks and his rare moment of sensible sensitivity was touching, but I couldn't wait.

I left the house with my husband and stopped when we were out of hearing distance.

I turned to him.

"She… Her fever made her very weak."

"But will she…?" He couldn't finish the sentence.

I shook my head, trying to avoid all the negative thoughts. "She is in good hands. Gothi and the midwife are doing everything they can. But the baby…"

He quirked an eyebrow, he didn't understand my concern, the baby seemed fine.

"Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with the baby, she is healthy and seems happy - well, as happy as a few moments old baby can be," I said quickly to comfort him.

"But… Ruffnut is too sick to feed her."

"Oh."

"Well, I thought I could…"

He immediately understood what I wanted to tell him. He stepped closer to me and took me in his arms.

"You are the most wonderful person, Astrid Haddock," he whispered.

He kissed me gently; it was the approval I needed.

§§§

We said goodbye to the boys and quickly headed home. We found Finn sleeping in his crib with Gobber sprawled out in the middle of the nursery, lightly snoring.

"I'll take care of them," said Hiccup quietly.

"Okay, I'll…" The baby in my arms started to sob and I was sure she was gathering her strength to cry. She must have been very hungry…

I hurried to our bedroom and closed the door behind us - I didn't want her to wake Finn up. When I put her on the bed, she was already crying loudly.

"Ssssh, Tia, sssh," I said kindly while I quickly took off my tunic. I sat on the bed. She was desperately gapping with her little mouth, like a fish out of water. I collected her in my arms and freed my breasts from the bindings.

She latched onto me hungrily.

"Sorry, it took a little long," I apologized her while stroking her soft blonde hair. She was beautiful indeed, especially now, when she wasn't starving anymore and her features smoothened.

"You are very good at this," I complemented her. Roughly ten minutes later I decided to switch boobs and I had just turned her around to my left breast when Hiccup came in.

"Gobber went home and Finn is still sleeping," he announced casually while sitting down next to me. He placed a quick kiss on my bare shoulder.

"And how are you, girls?"

I smiled. "We are good."

Tia was sucking a bit lazier; I knew she was almost asleep. "I think she's done."

Hiccup reached out for her. "Let me burp her. You know I'm good at it."

I smiled again. "Sure." I gently pulled her away from my breast, and Hiccup has already found a clean cloth and put it on his shoulder. I gave him the baby and he stood up with her, holding her head, gently patting her back, patiently waiting for her barely audible burps.

"She is so small," he said surprised.

"Yeah, it's strange for me too; Finn is such a big lad now." I found my night tunic and changed into it. Hiccup was still holding the baby, but he was looking at me while I was dressing. Weirdly, I didn't mind his gaze at all.

I climbed back under the blankets and she placed the baby next to me.

"I think it will be easier if she sleeps with you, I guess she will wake up a couple of times."

"Good call, master daaad," I said with a huge yawn.

He leaned to me and kissed my forehead. "Sleep, Astrid, you had a very long night."

§§§

When I fully woke up, the Sun was already setting. I had a long sleep, but Eretia woke me up three or four times and somehow I managed to feed her half-asleep. I knew it was going to be like that, the first few weeks with Finn, too, were exhausting and sleep deprived, but when I looked at the tiny blonde girl, who was now quietly fixing me with her huge blue eyes, I felt nothing but pure joy.

Then I smelt pancakes and my stomach churned and my heart started to beat twice as fast, because I knew that the best husband of the archipelago was making me dinner. And lunch and breakfast - since I had skipped them all.

I jumped out of the bed and stretched. Little Tia found it entertaining and she gifted me with her first heartfelt laugh on this Earth. I awed at her for a moment, then hastily changed my clothes and raked through my hair with clumsy fingers. I didn't have time to worry about my appearances - not that I really cared about it, I knew that no matter how I looked, Hiccup always saw the goddess in me. It was both ridiculous and comforting at the same time.

I gathered the baby in my arms and we went downstairs.

I found my husband in the kitchen, holding Finn in one arm and a wooden spoon in his free hand. He was cute; he had flour patches on his cheeks and a big, gap-teethed lopsided grin on his face.

"Hey, look who's up."

I went to him and he leaned down for a quick, joyous kiss.

When we broke apart, I wanted to greet Finn too, but to my surprise, he was pouting and soon started to cry really desperately. I was completely flabbergasted.

"Oh, hey, Astrid, I think we should switch kids."

I hesitated for a second, and then it hit me. "Oh, right. He is not happy about me holding another baby… I'm sorry, Tia."

Hiccup put the crying Finn down on the floor and quickly took Eretia from me. The little girl didn't mind having a new guardian, what was more, she laughed for the second time today when Hiccup made her a goofy face.

But Finn was still heartbrokenly crying, so I lifted him and hugged him.

"It's alright Finn, mommy is here."

I tried to calm him but soothing words didn't really help, so I went to the big chair that was once Stoick's, sat down and lifted my tunic to be able to feed Finn.

He calmed down nicely once he got my breast in his mouth and I wiped away two giant teardrops from his pink cheeks.

We locked gazes with Hiccup. I loved how even a few glances between us were enough to share our love and our appreciation.

Then he shook his head as if waking up from a dream.

"You should eat too," he said and brought me a plate full of blueberry pancakes, my absolute favorite.

"I'm starving," I admitted and ravenously bit into a nice, fat piece.

He laughed while he cradled the baby girl. "No wonder, you haven't eaten for a day."

"Luckily, not only does my husband know what my absolute favorite food is, he is nice enough to cook it for me."

"He must be an awesome man," he teased me, but since I was holding our son I wasn't able to give him a well-deserved punch for his cheekiness. But he stopped the mocking and sat next to me; Stoick's old chair was big enough for us and the two babies.

"Hey, you deserve all the pancakes of the world," he said.

It was a sweet moment, but then Finn noticed Eretia from the corner of his eye and he grabbed my breast with his strong little hand and started to suck like there was no tomorrow.

"Ouch," I cried painfully, "Finn, please, you are hurting me."

Hiccup slipped two fingers under Finn's demanding palm and he let go of my skin and grabbed them; it was a relief.

"I wonder where he got all this competitiveness from?" Hiccup said with a smile. I shrugged, luckily the little sucker started to get tired and his lips didn't feel like claws of a crab around my sensitive nipple. With my free hand, I shoved another pancake into my mouth. I knew I didn't look classy, but I couldn't care less. Plus Hiccup was focusing on Tia, gently rocking her in his arms.

"Oh, she fell asleep, I'll take her back to bed," he whispered a moment later. I nodded and he stood up and took the baby upstairs.

I finished with two more pancakes while he was away and luckily, Finn fell asleep too.

Hiccup stood in front of me and first I thought he was looking at our son, but then I noticed that his cheeks turned red and a second later he quickly averted his gaze.

I blushed too, when I realized that for the first time in years he felt embarrassed for absent mindedly staring at my breasts…

"Here," I said, lifting the sleeping toddler up, breaking the uncomfortable silence, "take him upstairs too, please."

He quickly disappeared on the stairs. I couldn't help smiling while I rearranged my tunic. It was nice that no matter how tired or worn-out I was, he still found me attractive. There was a side of him, unknown to all but me. I'm sure everyone on the archipelago would have been surprised to know what type of lover he was: strong and passionate, giving and adventurous, manly to the point when even a tiny smile in the corner of his mouth could turn me on - not to mention all the other gestures and moves he used to put me into a state where nothing existed but the two of us.

I shook my head, eh, it was so wrong to think about sex while we were basically surrounded by babies, but suddenly I crazily missed the intimacy…

I tried to kill my desires by occupying myself with collecting the plates and mugs from the table, but then he came back and started me helping with the deepest regret on his face.

"Erm… I'm sorry about before…"

I turned around to face him, with my lower back pressed to the edge of the table. I looked at him; he looked back at me sheepishly.

In a blink of an eye, I pulled off my leggings and my undergarment, kicked them away and sat up on the table.

"I… need this," I rasped and I gestured to him, all of him.

He reached for the straps on his pants and with two long strides he was between my welcoming legs. A hard breath later he was all inside me…

He leaned down on me, our bodies pressed together and he dug his nose into the crook of my neck. His trembling lips nibbled at my throat, tickling the sensitive skin while he buried himself in me again and again and again, holding my hips in place with firm hands.

I crossed my legs behind him trying to pull him closer, even though it wasn't actually possible. My core was burning with a constant, raw pleasure while he was throbbing inside me, hot and hard. I came undone in record time.

"I love you so much," I whispered into his ear while I stroked his hair with shaky fingers.

"The feeling is… very mutual… m'lady," he groaned between his final thrusts and suddenly, but not unexpectedly he filled me with his waves of warmness.

The tryst on the table couldn't have been longer than five minutes and he stayed on top of me afterwards; we were both enjoying the closeness. We were panting in synch for a couple of seconds then his lips smiled against my neck and I felt this curious sensation of complete happiness that only he could make me achieve.

§§§

The next days were beyond hard. The new parents were still bed ridden with their dreamless sleeps; one in a fall induced coma, the other quieted by high fevers.

I was torn between a colic little girl (unfortunately, Tia often had stomach pains as it turned out) and a demanding toddler, never sleeping more than thirty minutes in a row.

My sweet husband tried to help me with both kids, but he had other issues to deal with; our current situation did stop neither the complaining tribesmen nor the troublesome dragons. Decisions and repairs had to be made and they all required his presence.

Our house was constantly busy with visitors. Someone from the Thorston family was always at our threshold, wanting to see "little Ruff". They brought us food and presents as a token of their good will, but we hardly had time to eat and frankly we didn't need the 15th carving knife.

Every day when the night fell, I crawled into bed with fatigue-tortured muscles and burning eyes. Eretia was usually sobbing for awhile, because of her stomach and I tried to ease the pain by massaging her protruding baby belly.

Hiccup was equally tired. He slipped behind me, mumbled something about how unbelievably awesome person I was and then fell asleep a moment later.

After two weeks we started to look sort of unkempt. He grew a full beard (it was a ridiculous auburn mess on his cheeks) and I never had time to properly dress up because one of the two kids was always reaching for my boobs…

At least for the first time in my life my breasts were gigantic, but I could hardly find clothes that fit my new measures and my back was in constant pain due to the unusual weight that burdened my chest - eh, so much about feeling so self-conscious about them during my maiden days.

Also, we had to keep an eye on Finn. He was a sweet thing, but he wasn't a good sharer - at least not when it came to his momma's milk bags. So whenever he thought we weren't looking, he started to poke Tia, who naturally didn't take it very well and burst out in tears soon.

Daddy Hiccup was adorable, he tried to explain to his son that he should love the tiny baby, because she was cute and fragile and she needed our help. He taught Finn how to stroke her gently and our son's hostility towards the small intruder lessened every day.

But I wasn't complaining, far from it. Even though sometimes we felt like the shadows of our former selves, two faint ghosts in ragged human shells, it was totally worth it. Every smile on the kids' face and every tired laugh we shared at the end of the day were more than we had ever hoped for when we first dreamt about starting a family…

**TBC**


	17. Epilogue 3: Tia (Part Three)

Three weeks after his daughter was born, Eret woke up from the coma suddenly and unexpectedly. He couldn't walk because of his broken leg, so I decided on taking Tia to their house. I wished Hiccup could come with us, but he excused himself, he had some urgent business to take care of at the forge.

So it was just me, the baby girl and Finn and we slowly strolled down the village road leading to Eret's and Ruffnut's house.

Sadly, Ruff wasn't there. She was still weak with fever, barely breathing, so her mother had moved her back to the Thorston house and did everything she could to nurture her daughter back to life.

Of course we were still deeply concerned about her, but it seemed that the warmth of her old home and the caring mother was very beneficial for her and it was a comforting thought.

Other than that, everything went surprisingly smooth. Hiccup and I got used to managing the two kids, our own and the "borrowed" one. Finn didn't hate the little usurper princess anymore, what's more, his first intelligible word (not counting his 'horrendous' dragon roars) was "Tia". One afternoon he tried to tell us that she had woken up in her cradle, so he grabbed my calf and said "Tia".

Daddy Hiccup made a huge fuss about it, calling him the archipelago's smartest little boy and his cute little face lightened up with pride. Ever since, he was constantly repeating "Tiatiatiatia..." when he needed our attention.

Our little group finally arrived at uncle/daddy Eret's house, greeting him with loud hellos while walking up the stairs to his room.

I haven't seen him since the accident and I was a bit surprised when I laid eyes on him. He was pale and weak and he had huge black circles around his eyes, but he was also wearing the world's happiest, most excited smile.

Finn quickly ran to him and climbed on the bed for a hug; he really loved uncle Eret, he was a frequent guest at our house, since he was the closest friend of my dear husband. Eret hugged him back and quickly raked through my boy's auburn hair, but his eyes constantly wandered back to the bundle in my hand…

I casually sat down next to him and showed him his little girl. "Hey dad, let me introduce you to Eretia," I said while I put the baby into his trembling hands. She looked suspicious at first, examining the face she had never seen before, blinking slowly with her gorgeous blue eyes. Then she nestled in her father's big hands and let out a soft coo of approval and Eret, the mighty pirate of the high seas and the fearsome ex-trapper broke down in tears.

It was a touching moment and even though I'm not the sensitive type, I, too, let down my guards and huge tears of joy and relief started to run down my cheeks while I hugged my sobbing friend. Our sudden emotions frightened Finn and even though I tried to comfort him by smiling through my veil of tears, but it took a little while until he calmed down.

When we finally manage to wipe our wet faces, Hiccup arrived. He was holding a pair of crutches in one hand - a thoughtful gift from one one-legged father to another - and a bottle of strong liquor in his other.

We just enjoyed each other's company for another good hour, then I left with the kids and Hiccup offered to help Eret walk to the Thorston house to visit his wife. It took Eret sometime to get used to the crutches and Finn laughed a lot while he was watching him drop one, then the other, but finally he figured it out and made it to the bottom of the stairs, jumping like a dizzy sparrow.

Hiccup came back home late at night. I was awake; I had just finished feeding Tia when he crawled next to me in our bed. He was a bit tipsy, but very joyful and relieved; I was glad that he had a good night with Eret. We exchanged a few timid kisses then gently stroked each other until the dreams came for us.

§§§

After Eret woke up from the coma, things got a bit easier. Tia was still living with us, but her proud father insisted on taking her every day for a couple of hours. He was still using his crutches, but Hiccup sew him a pouch that he could strap on his chest and put the baby in it, and he was limping around in the village with his daughter like a proud peacock. And he had every reason to be proud, Eretia was an exceptionally beautiful baby.

A few days later, Ruffnut started to get better. She was still very weak, she could barely hold her head, but the fever was gone and she started to regain her strength. And she was happier than ever before. She loved her baby and her husband and all the people who helped her family throughout the hardships.

As for us, we were genuinely happy for them, but deep down in my heart I have to admit, I was a bit sad, because I knew that once she left her sickbed, I had to give Tia back and of course, by that time, I was really attached to the tiny blonde princess.

Finally, the day arrived when I had to pack all her things and hand her over to her parents. I never told Hiccup how deeply it affected me, but he knew it anyway and I'm pretty sure he felt the same way. But we had our own beautiful son and lots of things on our plate that had to be postponed because of Tia, so the void she had left behind was quickly filled with less pleasant daily chores.

I was still damn tired and I was looking forward the first night I could sleep through without a starving little screamer in our bed.

I woke up the next day at noon, the boys let me sleep in, and I felt as energetic and restless as during my maiden years, and since I couldn't find them anywhere, I went flying with my poor and unfortunately neglected dragon.

When I came back, they were home and we had dinner together and I put Finn down to sleep, humming him an old lullaby I learned from my mother.

I found my sweet husband in bed, reading some old parchments. I slipped under the warm pelts and looked at him expectantly. It took a little while until he looked back at me. My smile surprised him and he quirked an eyebrow.

"Are you busy?" I asked innocently, but my intentions weren't innocent at all.

"Wh-what are you suggesting?" He asked shyly.

I shrugged. "Well…"

I couldn't finish the sentence, well, truth be told, I couldn't even start it, he finally understood what I meant and he immediately swiped all his papers off the bed and collected me in his arms.

"Easy, easy…" I said laughing between kisses.

"Is this…? Did you mean we could…? Do you want to…?" He panted excitedly and I nodded as fast as I could.

"I thought you might want to see my boobs, they are still gigantic."

"Yes, please…"

I laughed again while I pushed him down and straddled his lap. His eyes grew big when I took off my nightclothes.

"How about that?" I asked, leaning closer to him.

"Sweet Freya…" he whispered and placed his warm palms on my impressive mounds.

"They won't stay like this, I'm afraid…" I said, but he was too busy stroking them. It felt really, really good.

We started to kiss and soon all of our clothes ended up in the ground. I felt his massive hardness poking my thigh and I really wanted him inside me, except, there was one more thing I needed to share with him…

"Babe… I didn't drink the tea…"

"Mmmm… okay, I'll be extra careful then," he mumbled, lost between my breasts.

"Hiccup. I _don't_ want you to be careful."

He raised his head and looked into my eyes, he seemed really confused. "I-I thought you wanted to have sex…?" he said, but it sounded more like a question.

"Yes, I really do," I answered making him even more puzzled.

"Then why don't you want to…?"

I looked into his eyes and wiped away a few strands of stray hair from his face. "Because I… huh…" I started, but it sounded way easier in my head… "Because I want another baby," I admitted finally, "if that's okay with you…" I added sheepishly.

First he just looked at me quietly, trying to process what he had just heard. Then he grabbed my arms and pulled me close as passionately as possible. "Are you kidding? I make you a dozen babies right now," he said happily.

"No, no, one will do, one will do…" I protested, but he was all over me now, stroking and kissing me everywhere. We made love all night and spent the next day yawning all over Berk.

§§§

The baby project made him the annoying teenager boy he never had been. He touched me and kissed me constantly and made love to me whenever we were alone. It could have been irritating, but I have to admit, his honest enthusiasm made me quite horny too.

We were walking along the coast line to watch the sunset when he stopped me and started kissing my neck, while his hands were ready to snake under my tunic. We were interrupted by rough clear of a throat.

We parted with burning cheeks while Eret was limping towards us.

"Mmm, sorry about that," he started.

"Now, it's okay, we were just… you know… checking on the sea and whatnot," said Hiccup lamely.

"Yeah, right. Well, I won't disturb you for long, the sea obviously needs a quick check," he said with a wink and I looked on the ground in an effort to hide my embarrassment.

"What can we do for you, Eret?" asked Hiccup.

"Oh, nothing. You have done enough, actually, a lot more than you should have."

"It's okay," I said quietly.

"And I never want to forget it, so… I did this," he said and pulled off the linen shirt he was wearing with a swift move.

On his chest, right above his heart, there was a fresh tattoo, its edges were still red.

Hiccup and I were speechless.

"It's a ray of haddocks," he explained, "so I can remember these past weeks for the rest of my life."

I marveled at the perfect fish; there were five of them, two big and three small ones. I loved the concept.

"Thank you, Eret," said my husband seriously and held out a hand to shake.

I hugged him. "It is really nice, Eret."

"Well, I had a lot of time, sitting alone at home," he said and winked again, "but I'll leave you to now. Feel free to board my ship, if you still want to inspect the sea…" he added and pointed to the boat nearby.

"Yeah, okay, we probably will," said Hiccup and I punched his arm. I mean… seriously… he might as well have told Eret that we were about to fuck… Eh, men…

"Have fun then," said Eret and limped away, back towards the village.

Hiccup was still rubbing his arm where I hit him. "Seriously, babe, I thought the punching days were over…" he complained.

I rolled my eyes and held out a hand for him. "Come on, you idiot, that two little fish won't make themselves."

He grabbed my hand and pulled me closer.

"I love you, Astrid Haddock," he said quietly.

"I love you, Hiccup Haddock," I said back.

We kissed until darkness came.

**THE END**

**Yeah, this story finally came to an end. Thanks for reading it. Needless to say, reviews are much appreciated. Hope you enjoyed it.**


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